LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

PRINCETON, N. J.

^

Purchased by the

Mary Cheves Dulles Fund

BL1451 =E36 1884

Eitei, Ernest John, 1838-1908.

Buddhism : its historical theoretical and

T H K E I', L K C T U H E S

ON

BUDDHISM

BUDDHISM:

V

N^^

MAR "^ n 1915

/i:

f^cr^i St

ITS

HISTORICAL, THEORETICAL AND POPULAR

ASPECTS.

BY

ERNEST J. EITEL, ph.d., tubixVG.

THIIiD EDITION.
EE\1SED, WITH ADDITIONS.

LONDON:
TKXJBNEK Sc Co

1884.

HONGKONG :

Printed at the China Mad Office.
UYNDHAM STKEET.

PPtEFACS TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The rapidity ^Yitll which the first edition of these
lectures was exhausted and the favour with which the
book was generally received by the })ublic press, especially
in China, encouraged the author to satisfy the continuing-
demand for it by a second edition, which was published in
the year 1873. This second edition having met with un-
expected success both in Europe and in America, a third
edition is now urgently called for. In view of the results
of more recent investigations, the whole has been revised
and extensive additions have been made here and there,
but the original form and the main substance of these
lectures have undergone but little alteration.

Hongkong, August, 1884.

E. J. E.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Two of the following' essays on Buddhism formed part
of a series of popular lectures, delivered in Hongkong; in
the course of the winter 1870-71. To complete the plan
laid down in the first essay, it was necessary to add a third,
and the whole is herewith offered to the reader as a popu-
lar sketch of Buddhism, which is here viewed under its
different aspects, as an event in history, as a system of
doctrine, and as a popular religion. Considering the cha-
racter of the audience before which these lectures were
delivered, the author avoided as much as possible going
into details, and confined his remarks to the more pro-
minent features of Buddhism. Those who wish to make
themselves further acquainted with this important religion
may refer to the author's ^ Hand-book for the Student of
Chinese Buddhism; London, Triibner c^' Co., 1870,' to
which more painstaking work the present pamphlet may
serve as a general introduction.

HoNGKOXO, March, 1871.

E. J. E.

CONTENTS.

LECTUEE I.— BUDDHISM, AN EVENT IN HISTORY.

Page.
§ 1 . Magnitude of the Buddhist system .... 1
§ 2. Importance of Buddhism ..,,.. 2

§ 3. Division of Subject Matter 3

§ 4. Historical Origin of Buddhism 4

§ 5. History of Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha ... 6

§ 6. Legendary Origin of Buddhism 7

§ 7. Legendary Accounts of Buddha's Life ... 7
§ 8, Incidents resembling the Life of Christ . . .14

§ 9. Origin of the Buddhist Canon 16

§ 10. Origin of the Buddhist Church 19

§11. Origin of Buddhist Missions 21

§ 12. Division of Southern and Northern Buddhism . . 22
§ 13. Introduction of Buddhism in China . , . .23
§ 14. Completion of the Buddhist Canon . . . .26
§ 15. Extension of Southern Buddhism . . . .27
§ 16. Extension of Northern Buddhism . . . .29

§ 17. Church and State in China 36

§ 18. Church and State in Tibet 45

§19. Historic Value of Baddhism ol

X

Contejits.

LECTURE IL—BUDDHISM, A THEORETICAL SYSTEM.

§ 20. The Doctrines of Buddhism .

§ 21. Development of the Buddhist Dogma .

§ 22. Summary of the Buddhist Dogma .

§ 23. Peculiarities of Buddhist Dogmatics .

§ 24. The Buddhist Theory of Physics

§ 25. The Buddhist Theory of Metempsychosis

§ 26. The Buddhist Theory of Ethics .

§ 27. Buddhist Philosophy ....

§ 28. Nirvana

§ 29. Yalue of Buddhism, as a Theoretical System

Page.

. 52

. 53

. 58

. 59

. 64

. 69

. 78

. 84

. 88

. 90

LECTURE III.— BUDDHISM, A POPULAR RELIGION.

§ 30. The Truths of Buddhism .

§ 31. The Defects of Buddhism . . .

§ 32. Popular Aspects of Buddhism

§ 33. Southern Buddhism as a Popular Religion

§ 34. Northern Buddhism as a Popular Religion

§ 35. Objects of Popular Worship

§ 36. The Trinity

§ 37. The Paradise of the West

§ 38. The Goddess of Mercy

§ 39. Interior of a Monastery

§ 40. Buddhist Polytheism .

§ 41. Buddhist Monotheism .

§ 42. Buddhist Notions of Atonement

§ 43. Conclusion • , .

. 92
. 95
. 96
. 100
. 105
. 106
. 114
. 119
. 124
. 131
. 137
. 138
. 140
. 144

LECTURE THE FlllST.

BUDDHISM, AN EVENT IN HISTORY.

MAGNITUDE OF THE BUDDHIST SYSTEM.

§ 1. — It is with considerable hesitation, that I set out
on this inquiry into the subject of Buddhism. But the
reason of this hesitation is not that I, after having given
years of study to this particular religion, failed to make
myself familiar with its general characteristics and minute
details. It is the magnitude and importance of the subject
that appals me and in view of which I naturally feel
distrustful of my own power to deal with that subject in a
satisfactory and yet attractive manner.

Buddhism, I repeat, is a system of vast magnitude,
for it combines the earliest gropings after science through-
out those various branches of knowledge which our Western
nations have long been accustomed to divide for separate
study. It embodies in one living structure grand and
peculiar views of ])hysical science, refined and subtle
theorems on abstract metaphysics, an edifice of fanciiul
mysticism, a most elaborate and far-reaching system of

2 Lecture the First.

practical morality, and finally a church organisation as
broad in its principles and as finely wrought in its most
intricate network as any in the world.

All this is moreover combined and worked up in such
a manner, that the essence and substance of the whole may
be compressed into a few formulas and symbols, plain and
sugg-estive enough to be grasped by the most simple-
minded Asiatic, and yet so full of philosophic depth, as to
provide rich food for years of meditation to the metaphy-
sician, the poet, the mystic, and pleasant pasturage for the
most fiery imagination of any poetical dreamer.

IMPOBTANCE OF BUDDHISM.

§ 3. — The magnitude of the subject, however, is but
equalled by its importance. A system which takes its roots
in the oldest code-book of Asiatic nations, in the Veda, a
theory which extracted and remodelled all the best ideas
that were ever laid hold of by ancient Brahmanism, a
religion which has not only managed to subsist for more
than two thousand years, but which has succeeded to draw
within the meshes of its own peculiar church-organization
and to bring more or less under the influence of its own
peculiar tenets several hundred miUions of people, nearly
one third of the human race, — such a system, such a
religion ought to have importance enough in our eyes to
deserve something more than passing or passive attention.

The history of Eastern Asia is the history of Bud-
dhism. But the conquests of Buddhism are not confined to
Asia. This grand system of philosophic atheism, which

Bucldhisin, cm Event in Ilistovij. 3

discards from the universe the existence of a creating- and
overruling* Deity and in its place deifies humanity, has,
since the beginning of the present century, entered upon a
course of conquest in the West, in Europe and America.

Atheistic philosophers, unconsciously attracted by the
natural affinity which draws together atheists of all coun-
tries and ag-es, have during- the last fifty years almost
instinctively gone on sipping* at the intoxicating cup of
Buddhist philosophy. The Germans Feuerbach, Schopen-
hauer and von Hartmann, the Frenchman Comte, the
American Emerson, with hosts of others, have all imbibed
more or less of this sweet poison and taken as kindly as
any Asiatic to this Buddhist opiate. But most of all that
latest product of modern philosophy, the so-called system
of positive religion, the school of Comte, with its religion
of humanity, is but Buddhism adapted to modern civilisa-
tion ; it is philosophic Buddhism in a slig-ht disguise.

DIVISION OF SUBJECT MATTER.

§ 3. — I mention these facts only, to claim the attention
of my readers for the subject of these three lectures, being*
aware of the prejudices which deter people from a study so
unpromising at first sight and uninviting- as that of Bud-
dhism. But to guide them through the vast labyrinth of
Buddhist literature and doctrines with something- like
method, I propose to divide the subject matter under
discussion into three parts and treat Buddhism first as an
event in histor}'', secondly as a dogmatic system, and finally
consider its aspects as a popular religion. I shall there-

Lecture the First,

fore treat Buddhism in this first lecture as an event in the
history of the world, and search for the hidden roots of the
gig-antic tree of knowledge under the boughs of which
nearly one third of the human race has flocked together.
Let us watch its gradual growth through successive
centuries, let us count the large branches it has sent forth
in all directions and ascertain its present condition and
extent.

HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF BUDDHISM.

§ 4. — But here, at the outset, we meet with the usual
difficulty that obstructs the way of the historian who
wants to get at the roots of events : they are hidden in
complete darkness. There is such a network of fiction,
romance, legend and truth lying around the early history
of Buddhism, that it is an exceedingly difficult task to
separate truth from fiction.

And yet these legends and myths ought not to be
despised by the historian, ought not to be thrown aside as
worthless rubbish. They are often very significant, a very
master-key to many specific characteristics of after-develop-
ments, a rich ore of hidden wealth to him who patiently
works through them and knows how to appreciate them
with discerning caution.

I shall not ask my readers, however, to follow me
through the tedious process of sifting out the truth from
among the tangled mass of legends about the first origin
of Buddhism. I will give them but the results of careful
investigations and lightly sketch first the few historic data

Buddhism, an Event in History. 5

that crop out of the chaos of legend and fable, and then
arrange the same according to the received tradition of the
Buddhist Church.

One thing is absolutely certain as regards the origin of
Buddhism, and that is, that it first arose in India. All
Buddhists of all countries point to India as the birthplace
of their religion, and strange to say all Buddhists, North
and South, are equally unanimous in singling out one and
the same city, the city of Benares, as the first headquarters
of early Buddhism.

Again, there is perfect unanimity as to the name of
the great founder of the present Buddhist Church, one
Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha. As to the time when this
man lived or died, great confusion prevails, traditions of
one and the same country often contradicting each other.
One Chinese account, for instance, places it as early as
OiO B.C., another, more modest, names the year 688 B.C.,
whilst the Buddhists of Ceylon fixed upon the year 543
B.C. As the latter date was confirmed by the discovery
of the chronicle of Cashmere, and as other considerations,
inscriptions and coins for instance, pointed to the same
century, it was until lately agreed upon among European
scholars that the year 543 B.C. was most probably the
year in which Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha died. But
within the last few years some ancient inscriptions have
been discovered in India pointing to the year 275 B.C. as
the time when Buddha died. The question is, however,
by no means settled yet, and meanwhile it will be safest to
adhere to the former date.

6 Lecture the Fisrt,

HISTORY OF SHAKY AMUNI GAUTAMA BUDDHA.

§ 0. — Regarding- the private history of this truly great
man very httle can be ascertained with perfect certainty, —
beyond the following facts. He claimed to be of royal
descent, but, dissatisfied vv^ith Brahmanism, he left house
and home, and tried at first to find peace in the most
austere asceticism. Finally, however, he emerged, disen-
tangling himself from the social trammels of caste and
all sectarian doctrines, and teaching voluntary poverty
and celibacy. On the basis of all existing religions he
gradually built up a grand system, the chief characteristics
of which were socially the complete insignificance of caste
and property, dogmatically thorough atheism and deifica-
tion of humanity, morally the dogma of the vanity and
unreality of all earthly good, transmigration of the soul in
accordance with the laws of moral retribution, and final
absorption in Nirvana.

But in spite of his undoubted originality of genius, it
is more than probable, that he was not the first Buddhist,
that he was but a great reformer, the Martin Luther of a
sect which existed perhaps for centuries before him, but
which rose with him only into historical significance, and
which he inspired with the courage to publicly compete
with the national religion of the Brahmans and the various
sects attached to the latter.

One other characteristic, imprinted upon Buddhism
by his master hand, is the spirit of thorough liberality and
absolute tolerance, which has marked the early rise and

Budclliisin, an Event in History. 7

progress of Buddhism and which enabled it to adopt the
most valuable ideas of all religions it came in contact with,
to enter into a compromise with almost every form of
popular superstition and to found and maintain a Church
for thousand of years, without ever persecuting' a sing-le
dissenter. That Buddhism is to the present day a system
of unlimited eclecticism, is no doubt the work of the clever
reformer Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha himself.

LEGENDARY OFdGIN OF BUDDHISM.

§ 6. — This is well nigh all concerning" the origin of
Buddhism, that may be said to belong* to history. But
now let us see what Buddhist tradition reports on this same
first epoch in the life of early Buddhism.

If we had the faith of an orthodox Buddhist, we
should say that the history of Buddhism is, like the his-
tory of the world, without a beginning-. As from eternity
one world has succeeded the other, rising" into existence by
a law of evolution, flourishing- and perishing* again, only
to be substituted by another, — thus, in all these countless
numbers of worlds, which have risen into existence and
disappeared again, before our present world came into
being-, there have been Buddhas and Buddhist Churches.
Moreover the relig-ion of each of these former Buddhas was
subject to the same laws of rise^ progress and decay.

LEGENDARY ACCOUNTS OF BUDDHA'S LIFE.

§ 7. — Now in our present vs'orld, there have appeared
already seven great Buddhas, the last and greatest of

S Lecture the First.

whom was, however, Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha. But
before Shakyamuni was born as a Buddha, he had appeared
on this earth at least 550 times, descending- perhaps first in
a Hash of Hghtning-, then may be veg-etating as a humble
plant, reborn again as a worm, again perhaps reborn as a
snake, then as a beast, a bird and so forth. Thus in 550
successive stages of transmigration he worked his way up
from the lowest forms of existence to the highest, through
the various kingdoms of nature, through the different
classes of sentient beings, then among the human race from
the lowest caste to the highest and through all the various
degrees of intellectual and religious saintship, exhibiting
all the time, in every particular walk of life in which he
appeared, the utmost unselfishness, absolutely self-denying
and self-forgetting love and charity, constantly sacrificing
his life for the benefit of other creatures, animate and
inanimate.

At last he was reborn in a certain heaven vvhence all
Buddhas come down to earth. Knowing that he was now
to be reborn on earth as a Buddha, he goes with the
assistance of some other devas through the whole court
almanac of Indian princes and princesses, and finally selects
the king of Kapilavastu and his young bride for his
parents. In accordance with this choice, this virgin bride
whose name, Maya, bears a curious resemblance to that of
the mother of our Saviour, gives birth to a son, whilst a
host of heavenly beings hasten to the spot and flashes
of liglit announce to all the universe the birth of a Buddha,
peace on earth and good will toward men.

Buddhism, an Event in History.

The newborn babe is forthwith baptized, and an old
saint, called Asita, appears like the Simeon of the g'ospel,
takes him in his arms and with tears in his e3'es he predicts
the child's future destinies, ile does so, however, by a
phrenolog-ical examination of the baby's skull, on the top of
which he remarks a curious bump, the indisputable indi-
cation of future Buddhaship. In further support of this
curious prognostication he points out altogether eighty
remarkable features of beauty, and especially a complete
network of delicate tracery on the child's skin, where he
observes a series of thirty-two ornamental symbolic desig'ns
most conspicuous on the palms and soles of the baby. In
fact this wonderful child is believed to have come into the
world tattooed with a network of mystic hieroglyphs.

A few years afterwards the baby was presented in a
temple, when — lo and behold — all the statues and idols
there rise and prostrate themselves before him. When
seven years old, he is placed under the tuition ot the most
excellent teachers, but the teachers find to their astonish-
ment, that he knows more than they could teach him and
retire dumb-founded. As gymnastic exercises seem to
have formed at that time part of an Indian school educa-
tion, he was also taught gymnastics and excelled all com-
petitors by strength of muscle. He threw a larg-e elephant
to a considerable distance, and shot an arrow so deep into
the solid ground, that it laid bare a fountain of water.

But he, the most beautiful, the most learned, the most
powerful of men, came to sad grief through women. He
married, and all Buddhist traditions agree in stating, that

10 Lecture the First.

it was through the experiences he made among; the ladies
of his harem that he became disgusted with the whole world
and fell into such a misanthropical mood, that when he once,
on a solitary walk, successively met with a miserable
decrepid old man, a young man writhing- in the agonies
of disease, a dead corpse and — by way of striking* contrast
— a serene-looking hermit, he suddenly ran away from
house and home and fled into the wilderness, and became a
hermit too.

In vain he endeavoured to regain his peace of mind by
solitude, fasting and self-torturing asceticism. He tried
all the prescriptions of Brahmanism and Shivaism, — all in
vain. When he was reduced by fasting and hunger to the
last stage of exhaustion, Satan himself appeared to tempt
him in various ways to a career of ambition and self-glori-
fication and finally to a life of sensual pleasure ; but by
keeping his mind fixed on the idea of the utter unreality of
all earthly things he conquered all such temptations.

Steeped in a sort of ecstatic meditation he remains
seated under a tree a whole night, when at last he reaches
the goal of absolute intelligence: he recognizes clearly that
misery is a necessary attribute of sentient existence, that
the accumulation of misery is caused by the passions, that
the extinction of passion is possible through fixed medita-
tion, and finally that the path to this extreme meditation
results in the absorption of existence which would be a
state of unlimited happiness. With the attaining of this
four-fold truth he has freed himself from the bondage of
sense, perception and self, he has broken with the material

Biultlhisni, an Event in History. 11

world, he lives in eternity: in one word, lie has become
a Buddha.

Forthwith he leaves the wilderness, when some wise
men from the East appear and make him some offerings.
lie collects some disciples and begins — what must have
been a perfectly novel thing in his time — a course of public
open-air preaching. He wanders about from place to place,
preaches in season and out of season, proclaiming every-
where that all earthly things are vanity and vexation of
spirit.

By the irresistible force of his soul-stirring eloquence
he gradually founds a new sect, a new religion. For every-
where crowds of fanatic followers gather round him, men of
all ranks and all classes 7 all take the vow of perpetual
chastity and voluntary poverty j all follow liim about, clad
in rags, begging and preaching.

Women also Hock to him, but for a long time he
refuses to admit them to the vows, for he is no advocate of
women's rights and laid down the doctrine, which has ever
since been retained by Buddhism, that a woman's highest
aspiration should be to be reborn as a man. One of his
favourite disciples, who is to the present day adored as the
principal patron of female devotees, persuaded him how-
ever, to found an order of sisters of charity, thus giving
women at least a chance of salvation. In this way the
foundation was laid for an ecclesiastical organization, built
up on the idea, that man and woman must, in order to
be saved, become first priests and nuns. Extra ecclesiam
nulla sahui.

12 Lecture the First.

Buddha is said to have wandered througli the length
and breadth of India and throug-h Ceylon, preaching every-
where the doctrine of universal misery and employing- the
terrors of transmigration and hell, to induce rich and poor
to lay aside all other pursuits, and to devote themselves ex-
clusively to the salvation of their souls, to religious medita-
tion, to enter the church, to become priests and nuns.

To give weight to his authority, he also worked
miracles. But his miracles (as afterwards those of his dis-
ciples) were more like tricks of jugglery. He did not heal
the sick, he did not recall the dead to life, but he showed
himself suddenly sitting cross-legged in mid-air, divided his
body into many portions, each shedding forth luminous
rays, or he trans-ported himself through the air hither and
thither, to show that purely spiritual meditation can break
through all the chains of material laws, that the spirit is
independent of matter.

On the other hand, he, the son of a king, associated
daily with the lowest and the outcast, went about in rags,
begging his food from door to door and proclaiming every-
where in the face of that powerful caste-spirit of India that
his religion was a religion of mercy for all. As a teacher
he displayed great liberality and tolerance, adopting for
instance all those deities which were decidedly popular,
though he indeed assigned them a signally inferior position
in his system, for the holy man, he used to say, is above the
gods.

Those Brahmanic and Sliivaitic sects, however, which
wei"e plainly immoral, he attacked and fought against with

Badclhism, an Eueiit in History. IS

all weapons at his command, conquering- generally more
through superiority of magic power, than through logical
argumentation.

He remodelled almost every Brahmanic dogma, so far
as it was necessary, in order to destroy its pantheistic
character, for which he substituted his down-right atheism.
But it is significant that he placed every Brahmanic
doctrine into a new light by the preponderance of ethical
treatment, which characterized his teaching to the almost
total exclusion of pure metaphysics.

In this way he laboured for a series of years. But not
satisfied with spreading his religion on earth, he is also said
to have ascended up into the heavens and to have gone
down to hell, to preach everywhere the way of salvation.

Towards the end of his life he is said to have been
glorified, or, as the Buddhist tradition literally calls it,
baptized with fire. He was on a mountain in Ceylon,
discoursing- on religious subjects, when suddenly a flame of
light descended upon him, and encircled the crown of his
head with a halo of light.

When he felt his end drawing near, he turned his way
to Kushinagara, N. W. of Patna. Heaven and earth began
to tremble and loud voices were heard, all living beings
groaning together and bewailing- his departure. When he
was passing through Kushinagara, a poor workman oflered
him his last meal, and though he had just refused the
oflerings of the highest and richest, he accepted this
offer, to show his humility, as he said, ' for the sake of
humanity.' Immediately afterwards he said to his disciples

i^ Lecture the First.

' stand up, let us g'o, my time is come.' He went out
to a spot, where eight trees in groups of two were
planted tog-ether. Resting- on his right side, he gave his
final instructions to his disciples, reminded them of the
immortality of the spiritual body and then gave himself up
to contemplation.

Passing through the various degrees of meditation
which correspond to the various tiers of heaven, he lost
himself into Nirvana and thus his earthly career was ended.
His disciples put his remains into a golden coffin which
immediately grew so heavy, that no power could move it.
But suddenly his long deceased mother Maya appeared
from above, bewailing her son, when the coffin lifted itself
up, the lid sprang open, and Shakyamuni appeared with
folded hands, saluting his mother.

Afterwards, when his disciples wanted to perform the
ceremony of cremation, they discovered that his body was
incombustible by ordinary fire, but suddenly a jet of flame
burst out of the mystic character inscribed on Buddha's
breast and reduced his body to ashes. The latter were
eagerly collected and received thenceforth almost divine
worship, being carried to all Buddhist countries, and for
safe keeping deposited in pagodas expressly built for this
purpose.

INCIDENTS RESEMBLING THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

§ 8. — Attentive readers will have noticed in this rough
sketch of Buddha's life many details singularly coincidin

D

BucUndsni, an Evetit in Ilistory. 1

jr

with incidents of the life of our Saviour as reported by
the gospels.

Shaky amimi Buddha — we are told — came from heaven,
was born of a virgin, welcomed by angels, received by an
old saint who was endowed with prophetic vision, presented
in. a temple, baptized with water and afterwards baptized
with fire, he astonished the most learned doctors by his
understanding and answers, he was led by the spirit into
the wilderness, and having been tempted by the devil, he
went about preaching and doing wonders. The friend of
publicans and sinners, he is transfigured on a mount,
descends to hell, ascends up to heaven, — in short, witli the
single exception of Christ's crucifixion, almost every charac-
teristic incident in Christ's life is also to be found narrated
in the Buddhist traditions of the life of Shakyamuni
Gautama Buddha.

And yet, this Buddha lived and died 275 or even 543
years before Christ ! Are we to conclude then, that
Christ — as a certain sceptic would make us believe — went
to India, during the eighteen years which intervened
between his youth and manhood, and returned, thirty years
old, to ape and reproduce the life and doings of Shakya-
muni Buddha? Or are we, who believe in Christ's origina-
lity, driven to the miserable subterfuge of assuming — as
some Jesuit fathers do — that the devil, foreknowing the
several details of the promised Messiah's life, anticipated
him and all the details of his life by his own caricature in
Shakyamuni Buddha ?

Unfortunately for the sceptic who would delight in

16 Lecture the First.

proving' Christ to have heen the ape of Buddha, it can be
proved, that ahnost every sing-le tint of this Christian
colouring-, which Buddhist tradition gives to the life of
Buddha, is of comparatively modern origin. There is not
a sing-le Buddhist manuscript in existence which could vie,
in antiquity and undoubted authenticity, with the oldest
codices of the gospels. Besides, the most ancient Bud-
dhist classics contain scarcely any details of Buddha's
life, and none whatever of those above mentioned peculiarly
Christian characteristics. Hardly any of the above g-iven
legends, which claim to refer to events that happened many
centuries before the beginning of our Christian era, can be
proved to have been in circulation earlier than the fifth
century after Christ. *A biography of Buddha,' says
Oldenberg, ' has not come down to us from ancient times,
from the age of the Pali texts, and, we can safely say, no
such biography was in existence then.' I shall presently
have an opportunity (§ 16) to point out the precise source
from which those apparently Christian elements flowed
into and mingled with Buddhist traditions concerning the
life of Buddha.

OBIGIN OF THE BUDDHIST CANON.

§ 9. — I have entered thus fully into the detailed his-
tory of the founder of Buddhism, because it is, in my
opinion, an indispensable key to the understanding of
Buddhism as a whole, for every single Buddhist dogma is
believed to have been evolved from the intuitive conscious-
ness or inward experience of this one man. To the present

Buddhism, an Event in Hishory. 1 7

day, any dogma, even of the latest growth, will be received
by the most orthodox Buddhist, if it can be made to fit
into the history of Buddha's inner life, as reported by an-
cient tradition.

After his death a general assembly of the faithful was
called, and the legends assert that then and there the
sayings and teachings of Buddha were collected, sifted and
fixed in a triple canon, by the three principal disciples of
Shakyamuni. But for centuries after his death, we have
no proof whatever of the existence of a written canon.

On the contrary, the doctrines of Buddha appear to
have been handed down from generation to generation
orally. One of Buddha's disciples distinguished himself
above his fellows and was soon looked upon as the successor
of Shakyamuni. He appointed his successor, handing
over to him his almsbowl and his mantle, together with
some pithy sayings, embodying the essence and substance
of Buddhist doctrine. This one again appointed his
successor in the same way, and thus we have a series
of patriarchs, as they were called, who in turn were looked
upon each as the temporary head of the Church of his time,
and who transmitted from generation to generation the
reputed teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Of course the Buddhist dogma underwent considerable
alterations in thus passing from mouth to mouth. Naturally
also heresies sprang up here and there, for the putting
down of which again and again oecumenic councils were
held, to re-establish the orthodox doctrines in opposition to
h^retjool adulterations.

18 Lecture the First.

About the be^^^inning- of the Christian era many books
also seem to have been in circulation^ claiming- to be
authentic expositions of the orthodox faith. A number of
them would appear to have received public approval at the
oecumenic council, held in Cashmere under Kanishka, who
reigned from 15 B. C. to 45 A. D., and to have been
gathered in three divisions to form the standard canon of
the Buddhist Church.

But no reliable information exists as to the extent and
character of the Buddhist scriptures said to have been
finally revised by that council. The very earHest com-
pilation of the modern Buddhist canon, that history
can point out, is that of Ceylon. But the canon of
Ceylon was handed down orally from generation to
generation. Part of it was reduced to writing about 30
B. C. [under the reign of Wattagamini B. C. 104-76].
The whole canon, however, was first compiled and fixed in
writing between the years 412 and 432 of our present
Christian era.

Burmese and Siamese Buddhists received their sacred
scriptures from Ceylon. But the canon of Northern
Buddhists, that is to say that of Cashmere, Nepaul, Tibet,
Mongolia, China, Corea and Japan, this Northern canon
which claims to have been formed earlier, by the above-
mentioned fourth council, coincides with the Buddhist
scriptures of Ceylon, though the Northern Buddhists have
apparently enlarged the original canon to a great extent,
by expanding the subject matter of original documents and
by adding works of their own.

Buddhism, an Event in History. 19

ORIGIN OF THE BUDDHIST CHURCH

§ 10. — So much about the bible of the early Buddhist
Church. As to this Church itself, it was left at the death
of Shakyamuni Buddha with the mere rudiments of an
ecclesiastical organization. But his followers enthusiastical-
ly and consistently went on completing the edifice. They
continued to preach and to teach much in the same way as
Shakyamuni himself had done.

Soon, however, they found it necessary to moderate
their demands. It was for instance practically impossible
that every one should become a priest. Thus laj^-brethren
and lay-sisters were admitted into the Church with a
relaxation of the vows. Then in the various monasteries
and nunneries, which sprang up everywhere, discipline had
to be maintained, different occupations and different age
produced a difference of rank, and thus slowly but steadily
a complete machinery of ecclesiastical and monastic or-
ganization was formed, with an elaborate code-book of
discipline and ceremonial.

Whilst the Buddhist Church was thus internally
occupied, consolidating itself and gaining in stability and
strength, it could not be expected to spread to any great
distance, esi)ecially as India was then politically divided
into innumerable petty kingdoms, in most of which the
Brahmans exercised paramount influence.

Consequently we find, that during the first two
centuries after the death of Buddha, taking the year 543
B. C. as the year in which Shakyamuni died, the influence

^0 Lecture the First.

of the new religion was confined to the countries bordering*
on the Ganges and had scarcely reached the Punjab.

At the end of this period Alexander the Great invaded
India. But strange to say, of this glorious campaign of the
Greek armies, which for the first time brought India into
close contact with Hellenic civilisation and culture, no
traces remain, except on the part of India a few coins and
inscriptions, and on the part of the Greeks a {qw mysterious
legends, as for instance that of the Indian Hercules and a
few scanty notes as to the existence of Buddhists in India.

But out of the political anarchy into which the whole
conglomeration of Indian kingdoms was thrown by the
invasion of Alexander, arose an empire which soon swallow-
ed up all the others.

It was founded by an adventurer of low birth called
Tchandragupta by the Buddhists, and Sandrakottos by the
Greek historians. Despised on account of his low birth by
Brahmans, he hated them in return and began to patronize
the rising Buddhist Church. His grandson Ashoka, whose
cognomen Piyadasi has been handed down to the present
day by innumerable stone inscriptions scattered all over
India, united nearly the whole of India under his sceptre.
Embracing the Buddhist faith, in which he saw the
safeguard of his dynasty, he strengthened and extended the
Buddhist Church with all the means at his command, and
became the Constantine of Indian Buddhism.

Ashoka formally acknowledged to hold his power and
possessions only as a fief from the Church, he convoked an
oecumenic council for the establishing of orthodox teaching,

Buddhisnif an Event in History, 21

tightened the reigns of Church discipline by the introduc-
tion of quinquennial assemblies to be held in each diocese,
erected pagodas and endowed monasteries with great
profusion in all parts of India.

ORIGIN OF BUDDHIST MISSIONS.

§ 11. — But the greatest work Ashoka did was the
establishing of a board for foreign Missions (Dharma-
Mahamatra), which sent forth to all surrounding countries
enthusiastic preachers who went out in self-chosen poverty,
clad in rags, with the almsbowl in their hands, but
supported by the whole weight of Ashoka's political and
diplomatic influence. His own son Mahendra went out as
a missionary to Ceylon, and the whole island forthwith
embraced the faith of Buddha.

At the same time Cabulistan, Gandhara, Cashmere
and Nepaul were brought under the influence of Bud-
dhism, and thenceforth every caravan of traders, that
left India for Central Asia, was accompanied by Buddhist
missionaries. •»

In this way it happened, that as early as 250 B.C.
a number of 18 Buddhist emissaries reached China,
where they are held in remembrance to the present da}-',
their images occupying a conspicuous place in every
larger temple.

So then we observe with regard to these earliest Bud-
dhist missionaries three things which form a remarkable
parallel to the line of movement followed by modern Chris-
tian Missions in Eastern A?ia. It is evident that these

^2 Lecture the First.

Buddhist missionaries went out, in the first instance, with
even greater self-abnegation than Roman Catholic priests,
as mendicant monks } secondly, they followed in the wake
of trade ,* and thirdly, they were backed by imperial in-
fluence and diplomacy.

DIVISION OF 80UTEERN AND NORTHERN

BUDDHISM.

§ 12. — Soon after Ashoka's death his empire fell to
pieces, the Brahmans lifted their heads up again, and a
reaction took place which resulted in a severe persecution
of all Buddhists then living in India.

In the course of this dark period, which reached its
height under Pushpamitra in 178 B.C., most of the monas-
teries and pagodas were laid in ashes, nearly all the sacred
books were destroyed, and the whole Buddhist Church in
India received a shock from which it never afterwards
recovered. But this very persecution gave a renewed im-
petus to the foreign Missions of the Buddhists, who now
pushed their way through the whole of Central Asia and
gained a lasting foothold among the various Tartar tribes
which were just then in great commotion.

A branch of the great tribe of the Huns, pushed to
the West by the advances of the Chinese in Central Asia,
fell over the Greek provinces West of the Hindukush,
overran Trans-oxania, destroyed the Bactrian kingdom and
finally conquered the Punjab, Cashmere and the greater
part of India.

Their greatest king Kanishka, a contemporary of

Buddhism, an Event in History, 23

Clirist, patronized Buddliism as liberally as Asboka bad
doue. During- bis reig-n tbe last oecumenical council, wbich
revised the canon, was beld in Casbmere, but it was not
recognized by tbe Buddbist Cburcb of Ceylon, and thus
a split took place, corresponding- to tbe division of tbe
Roman and Greek Churcbes in tbe ecclesiastical bistor}^ of
tbe West.

Tbe Buddbist Cburcb of Ceylon, witb its dependencies
in Burmab and Siam, maintained witb great tenacity tbe
original teacbing* of early Buddbism in comparative purity,
wbilst tbe Northern Buddbists, tbat is to sav tbose of
Northern India, Cashmere, Nepaul and afterwards those
of China, Tibet and Mongolia, went on constantly adding*
to and expanding' the common stock of doctrines and
traditions, and entering into compromises with any form
of popular superstition they found too deep-rooted and too
popular to overcome.

INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM IN CHINA.

§ 13. — About this time it was tbat Buddbism was
otHcially recognized in China. I have remarked above,
tbat as early as 250 B.C. Buddhist missionaries peregrinat-
ed through China. They found there a popular relig-ion,
tbe chief characteristics of which were serpent and tree-
worship, the grand moral system of Confucianism witb its
worship of ancestors, and the system of Tauism, which had
already descended from its sublime height of philosophic
mysticism to an alliance witb popular forms of superstition,
sorcery and witchcraft. The Buddhists at once arrayed

'2Jf Lectwrc the First.

themselves on the side of popular superstition and Tauism,
in opposition to Confucianism. But for fully three hun-
dred years, from 250 B.C. to 62 A.D., the labours of Bud-
dhists in China met with little success; in fact, statistic
enquirers into the missionary problem of that time would
have called Buddhist propaganda in China a decided failure.
Meanwhile, however, Chinese armies had been fighting*
a series of campaigns in Central Asia and had repeatedly
come into contact with Buddhism established there. Re-
peatedly it happened that Chinese generals, engaged in
that war, had occasion to refer in their reports to the throne
to the influence of Buddhism, and in the second year
before Christ an ambassador of the Tochari Tartars (pro-
bably sent by Kanishka) presented the emperor of China
with a number of the sacred books of Buddhism.

More than a hundred years before that time, in the
year 121 B.C., a gigantic golden statue of Buddha forming
part of the spoils of those campaigns had been brought to
the Chinese court.

If we keep these facts in mind, there is no apparent
reason why we should discredit the story of the famous
dream of the Emperor Ming-ti. It is reported in Chinese
history, that in the year 61 A.D. the Emperor Ming-ti saw
in a vision of the night an image of gigantic dimensions,
resplendent as gold, its head surrounded by a halo as bright
as the sun, approach his palace and enter it. At a loss
how to explain this dream, the Emperor appealed to his
younger brother, the prince of Thau, who had been known
for years as the most zealous protector of the TouiBts and

u,

Biuldhisni, an Evehb lib History. ^o

who probably favoured Buddhism too. At any rate, this
priuce at ouce sug*g-ested, that the golden imag'e which
the Emperor saw referred to the statue of Buddha^ and
that it seemed to be Heaven's command, that Buddhism
should be introduced at court and adopted by the Imperial
Government.

Thereupon the Emperor despatched an embassy, which
passed throug-h Central Asia, to Cashmere and India, and
returned in the year 7d A.D. accompanied by an Indian
priest, with a statue of Buddha carved in sandalwood, and
one sacred book. The latter was forthwith translated and
published by Imperial authority, and therewith Buddhism
was firmly established in China.

Soon other Indian priests arrived in China with more
books, which were likewise translated by order of succeed-
ing- Emperors. In fact, Chinese Buddhists appear to have
been most anxious to obtain and translate as many Buddhist
manuscripts as they could lay hold of. Several Chinese
Emperors interested themselves in this work. And yet,
more than three hundred years after Ming'-ti had sent his
embassy to India to collect the sacred texts of Buddhism,
the Emperor Yau-ling- (397-415 A.D.) had to send an
expedition to Central Asia, to obtain more books, and about
the same time the famous traveller Fahien started for India
on account of the absence of books treating* on ecclesias-
tical discipline. Again, in the year 518 A.D., the Queen
of the Wei country sent ambassadors to India for Bud-
dhist books. In the year 629 A.D. the celebrated Hiuen-
tsang' set out on his travels through Central Asia and

^6 Lecture the First.

India, with the same object in view, and translated, after his
return to China, as many as 7b Buddhist manuscripts.

In the year 860 A.D. the Emperor I-tsung- of the
Tau<^' dynasty ap})lied himself to the study of Sanskrit anil
gave a new impetus to the collection of Buddhist litera-
ture, which was now only n])proaching' completion. The
Emperor Jin-tsung opened a college for Sanskrit studies
in the year 1035 A.D. and appointed fifty youths to study
that lano-uao-e.

COMPLETION OF THE BUDDHIST CANON.

§ 14. — Strange to say, in spite of all these strenuous
efforts, continued for more than a thousand years, it was
not until the year 1410 A.D. that the Chinese procured
a complete edition of the Buddhist canon, and the modern
edition of it, known as the Northern collection, is of still
later date, having been completed between the years 1573-
1G19 A.D.

What becomes then of the assertion that the Buddhist
canon was closed at the time of the fourth cecum enic council
under Kanishka? Kanishka died in the year 45 A.D.
Scarcely twenty-five years afterwards Ming-ti's embassy
arrived in the very place wdiere that council had been as-
sembled, and having searched all through India for Bud-
dhist books returned to China with one tiny little volume,
a Sutra of forty- two short paragraphs.

It is clear therefore that history bears me out in what
I said above, that the earliest edition of the Buddhist scrip-
tures is that of Ceylon, which according to the unanimous

Biuldhisin, an Eveivt in Eistory. ^7

testimony of Sing-halese Buddhists did not exist before the
years 410-432 A.D. Next comes the Chinese canon col-
lected under the Tang- dynasty (about 8G0 A.D.) and
completed in the year 1410 A.D.

We see therefore how favourably our Christian Bible
compares with the canon of the Buddhists. Our Bible has
])een assailed by sceptics and infidels, has been historically
and critically examined under the microscope of prejudiced
antiquarians, and yet the fact remains uncontested that the
canon of the Old Testament was completed in Esra's time
about 450 B.C., and that no further additions were made to
the canonical ])ooks of the New Testament after the close of
the second century of our era. Besides, we still possess
ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, two of which,
the (yodex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, were undoubted-
ly written in the course of the fourth century, one hundred
years before the first edition of the Buddhist scriptures was
undertaken. Of the latter, not a sing-le ancient manuscript
has withstood the ravag'es of time, nor has any copy of an
ancient Buddhist text ever been examined critically by
either friend or foe in the searching* manner in which all the
codices of the New Testament have been tested.

EXTENSION OF SOUTHERN BUDDHISM.

§ 15. — But to return to our subject, we have seen that
Buddhism split about the beg'inning- of the Christian era
into two divisions, which are no\v-a-days known under the
names of Southern and Northern Buddhism.

Southern Buddhism, i.e., the Buddhist Churches of

28 Lecture the First.

India, Ceylon, Burmah and Siam, soon lost considerable
gTound. New persecutions broke out again and again at
the instigation of the Brahmans, especially in India, where
the last remnants of Buddhism were exposed to the most
sanguinary persecution in the course of the sixth and
seventh centuries. But no detailed records of this struggle
remain. This much however is certain that these persecu-
tions, followed up by the invasion of the Mohammedans,
put an end to the reign of Buddhism in India, and at the
present day there are in India but scanty traces of its
former existence, in the shape of ruins, rock temples and
the sect of Djains, whose connection with Buddhism is now
scarcely recognizable.

In Ceylon, in Burmah and Siam, Buddhism is still
flourishing. Its doctrines are popularly believed in, and
practically obeyed, though the priests themselves are
generally despised, unless they are objects of awe on
account of supposed magic powers. The temples and
monasteries are in possession of large revenues, and yet the
sacred buildings are everywhere allowed to fall into ruins,
scarcely an effort being made to prevent their destruction
by the elements of nature. The number of priests now liv-
ing in Ceylon does not average more than one in four
hundred of the whole population. This would give for the
island about 2,500 priests. The proportion of priests to
laymen is greater in Burmah, and still greater in Siam,
though in the latter country the temples are less numerous.

Buddldsni, cm Event in History. 29

EXTENSION OF NORTHERN BUDDHISM.

k IG. — Whilst Southern Buddhism lost the greater
part of its ancient territory, Northern Buddhism has, since
the beginning- of our Christian era, run a course of almost
unchecked conquests.

It retained its foothold in Cashmere and Nepaul, and
thoug'h it lost most of its intluence in the Western half of
Central Asia, through the intlux of Mohammedanism, it
conquered in Eastern Asia new territories, vastly superior
in extent and importance.

The most complete triumph that Buddhism ever achiev-
ed was accomplished in Tibet. Buddhism was, at an early
period, carried to 'J'ibet from Caferistan and Cashmere,
where Shivaism and Brahmanism had been for a long time
saturating' Buddhism to the almost total oblivion of manv
of its original characteristics.

Thus it happened, that Buddhism reached Tibet in an
adulterated form, and entering there into an amalgamation
with indigenous S3'stems of Animism and especially with the
necromantic superstitions which have ever been rampant
in this country, Tibetan Buddhism departed still farther
from the original type of moral asceticism. Nevertheless
the spirit of propagandism was astir among the early
Buddliists of Tibet as much as among- the adherents of
Southern Buddhism. Being connected by trade with China,
Tibet sent Buddhist emissaries to labour in China even
before Buddhism became a recognized power among- the
Tibetans. The Buddhist Church of Tibet g-ained its first

30 Lecture the First.

official recog-nition duriKg* the reig-n of Lha-llio-lhori
(407 A.D.), who claimed to be a lineal descendant of the
Shakja family. About the middle of the fifth century
Nestorian missionaries reached Central Asia and made
numbers of Buddhist priests of Tibet acquainted with the
story of Christ's life and with the ceremonial of the Catholic
Church. True to the eclectic instincts of Buddhism, the
Tibetan priesthood then, and in subsequent centuries,
adopted as many Christian ideas, traditions and ceremonies,
as they thought compatible with Buddhist orthodoxy.

Here we have then the explanation of the above men-
tioned coincidences in the traditions concerning- the life
of Buddha with the g-ospel narratives of Christ's life.
/Introduced into the Buddhist hag'iology of Tibet, these
semi-foreign leg-ends speedily found their way into the
Buddhist literature of China, and caused generally an
adulteration of the original traditions of early Buddhism in
Eastern Asia.

Lha-lho-lhori's grandson, Srong-dsan-gambo, made
Buddhism the ruling religion of Tibet. He also introduced
Sanskrit studies and a Sanskrit alphabet (A.D. 629). B}^
his marriage (AD. 641) with a daughter of the Chinese
Emperor Tai-tsung, he materially strengthened the link
which, for centuries before his time, connected the Bud-
dhist Churches of China and Tibet. This Chinese princess
became so renowned in Tibet, as a patroness of Buddhism,
that she was canonized after her death and is worshipped
to the present day as 3f the most popular deities of

Tibetan Buddhists.

Buclclhisiti, cm Euent in History. 31

Towards the end of the seventh century the inroads
of the Mohammedans, putting- an end to the Buddhist
Churches of Transoxunia and Cabuhstan, produced a new
inHux of Buddhist priests into Tibet.

King* This-roug--de-tsan, who reigned 740-786 A.D.,
was the son of a Chinese princess and had inherited from
his mother strong prejudices in favour of Buddhism. Dur-
ing his minority the Tibetan nobles did their best to ex-
tinguish Buddhism. But tlie moment This-rong-de-tsan
ascended the throne, all was reversed. Buddhism was
officially adopted, learned priests were sent for from India,
new monasteries were built and endowed, and a beginning-
made wuth the translation of the Buddhist scriptures into
the native dialect of Tibet.

His successors :dso patronized the Buddhists and as-
sisted them in the formation of a complete hierarchy, giving-
them spiritual jurisdiction, extensive grants of land and
various other privileges. This increase in Church property
and Church influence, which naturally enrag-ed the nobility
as it impoverished the lower classes, produced eventually
a revolution, and a persecution broke out which endangered
the very existence uf Biuldhism. But their persecutor
King Lang-darma having- been assassinated by a priest,
the persecution ceased.

Cautiously but speedily the Buddhists regained their
former influence, and were soon stronger than ever, esta-
blishing- in the eleventh century an hereditary priesthood
which thenceforth dominated over king and people, but
eventually developed, as we shall presently explain (§ 18),

Si .Led are the Mrst.

into a hierarchy content to be held in bonds of absolute
tutelage by an alien State.

From Tibet Buddhism spread to Mongolia and Man-
churia, where it prospered exceedingly. Every third per-
son one meets in Mongolia is a priest, and many of their
monasteries are as large as a good-sized town. To the
Kalmyks on the Wolga, to the Burjads on the Baikal sea,
and to the Carenes of Further India, Buddhism has been
carried at a comparatively recent period.

We have seen how it spread to China, where it was
otlicially adopted in the year 61 A.D., and though the
Confucianists in successive centuries persecuted Buddhism
with fire and sword and put forth their best literary efforts
to nullify its influence, they not only failed to stop the
progress of Buddhism, but got themselves so imbued with
Buddhist ideas, and so impressed with Buddhist pretences
of magic power, that to the present dciy the most thorough-
paced Confucianist goes without any scruple through
Buddhist ceremonies, on the occasion of weddings or
funerals, or in cases of illness, epidemic or drought. Some
time ago a Chinese gentleman, a Confucianist to the
backbone, expressed in a conversation with me his utmost
contempt for Buddhism, but at the same time, when T
happened to show him a Chinese translation of a certain
Buddhist Sutra, he acknowledged to have learned it by
heart. When I asked him how he came to study a Bud-
dhist book, he assured me with the greatest seriousness
that it was universally known, and proved by his own

Biuldhisni, an Uvent in History. 33

experience, that the reading- of this Sutra was a never-
failing* panacea for stomach ache.

It is certainly wrong- to say, that the Chinese are all
Buddhists, But it is equally wrong- to suppose that only
the members of the Buddhist hierarchy in China can be
counted as Buddhists. As to the priests, they are certainly
not very numerous in China; they are mostly recruited from
the lowest classes, and one finds among- them frequently
the most wretched specimens of humanity, more devoted to
opium smoking than any other class in China. They have
no intellectual tastes, they have centuries ag-o ceased to
cultivate the study of Sanskrit, they know next to nothing
about the history of their own religion, living- tog-ether
mostly in idleness and occasionally going out to earn some
money by reading litanies for the dead or acting as ex-
orcists and sorcerers or physicians. No community of
interest, no ties of social life, no object of generous ambiti-
on, beyond the satisfying of those wants which bind them
to the cloister, diversify the monotonous current of their
daily life.

And yet the whole of the Chinese people is influenced
to a certain extent by the doctrines of Buddhism. Tauism
is but Buddhism in native dress. The doctrines of trans-
migration, of hell and a future j)aradise in heaven, have
penetrated far and wide among the mass of the people.
The Chinese Government, though giving Confucianism
official precedence, freely countenances the Tauist imitation
of the Buddhist hierarchy and ceremonial, and fre(|ucntly
dc}Mitcs officials to attend Duddiiist ceremonies of worship.

34 LccUoro the First.

The Buddhist rosary actually forms part of the official dress
of every Mandarin. The Imperial mausolea are under the
official charge of the Buddhist clergy, Buddhist shrines
abound in the Imperial palaces, and the Imperial house-
hold constantly requisitions the ministrations of Buddhist
})riests. As it is at Court, so it is all over the Empire.
Almost all Chinese are Confucianists in theory, and most
of them will, as a matter of argument, declare Buddhism
to be rank heresy, but in practice they freely combine
Buddhist rites and ceremonies with the traditional ritual of
orthodox ancestral worship. There is hardly a wedding,
or a case of serious illness or a funeral in China, where the
services of Buddhist (or Tauist) priests are not employed.
There is hardly a town in China which has not a temple
full of pictorial representations of hell, and there is not a
village in China which does not arrange, in the course of
the seventh month of every year, for a series of masses to
to be read and requiems to be sung- by Buddhist (or Tauist)
priests for the benefit of the dead (§ 42). Even in those
Confucian preaching halls, which have been established in
South China by zealous Confucianists, in order to expound
Kanghi's Sacred Edict in opposition to the chapel preach-
ing- of Protestant missionaries, the walls are generally
covered with placards exhorting* people to morality by
means of arguments based on the Buddhist doctrines of hell
and metempsychosis. It is not too much to say that most
Chinese are theoretically Confucianists, but emotionally
Buddhists or Tauists. But fairness requires us to add that,
though the mass of the jteople are mure or le^a inllueiiced

Bitddldsin, an Event in History. 35

by Bucklliist doctrines, yet the people as a whole have no
respect for the Buddhist Church and habitually sneer at
Buddhist priests.

Where then is the much-talked-of exclusiveness of
China? Buddhism is a foreig-n relig-ion, introduced by
foreign priests, of whom there were at the beginning' of
the sixth century upwards of 3,000 living in China.
To the present day two-thirds of the whole Chinese
Buddhist literature are translations of foreign works.
Every popular Buddhist book is full of Sanskrit phrases.
Many of the litanies which the priests read are Sanskrit
prayers transliterated in Chinese characters, the prayers
which exorcists among* the common people recite, the
charms and amulets they use, frequently contain Sanskrit
characters.

Wh}^ then should we despair of bringing the Christian'
truth home to the hearts of this peoi)le ? Christianity is
more universal in its character and more adapted to the
peculiarities of all nations than Buddhism. Christianity
can be introduced in China without the study of a language
as difficult as Sanskrit. The Chinese Christian Bible, as
we already have it, is more intelligible to the common
people, than any of the sacred books of the Buddhists.
And truth must prevail in the end.

Let us remember, also, that it took Buddhism three
hundred years before it obtained official recognition, and
many centuries more, before the mass of the people was
influenced by itj and who will then speak of the -failure
of Protestant Missions, which during the first forty

36 Lecture the First.

years of their operations in China gathered over 15,000
native communicants into the Christian Church ?

From China Buddhism spread to Corea in the year 3?2
A.D. and thence to Japan, where it was first introduced in
the year 552 A.D. But in both of these countries Buddhism
has obtained but partial success, and suffered considerable
adulteration by the influence of native religions.

CHURCH AND STATE IN CHINA.

§ 17. — The vexed question of Church and State has
been settled, as far as Northern Buddhism is concerned,
many centuries ago. The relation in which the Buddhist
Church stands to the State is well worth considering, but it
will suffice to refer to the two cases of China and Tibet,
as they are typical and perfect illustrations of the political
status which Northern Buddhism has gained for itself
during the last two thousand years.

To take the case of the Buddhist Church of China
first, we remarked above on the zeal with which Buddhist
missionaries peregrinated the length and breadth of
Eastern Asia, preaching and teaching the people and bring-
ing with them quite a new literature and a complete
scheme of Church organisation. We also observed the
interest which many Chinese Emperors exhibited in the
propagation of the Buddhist creed and the assistance
they gave to the attempt to transplant to Chinese soil
the study of Sanskrit and finally how they aided the great
work of completing the canon of Northern Buddhism,
which was eventually succeeded by the growth of a con-

Buddhism, an Event in History. 37

siderable native Buddhist literature. To the present day
most Buddhist monasteries keep printing presses at work
from which constantly new editions of ancient and modern
books and tracts issue. Yet, in spite of all that, the Bud-
dhist Church of the present day enjoys neither the respect
of the people mor that of the State.

One of the many causes which brought about this
pitiable result may be found in the fact that the mass of
the people of China are so thoroughly impregnated with
the inherited belief in the sanctities of family life that
they cannot help despising a system avowedly based on
cehbacy and monasticism. As to the Chinese Government,
the attitude which all successive dynasties assumed towards
Buddhism, though certainly not a uniformly respectful one,
appears hardly ever to have been positively antagonistic.
Whilst individual Emperors of the Han, Tang and Yuen
dynasties openly patronized Buddhism, not one attempted
to eradicate or even to prohibit Buddhism as a religion.
Persecutions have not been wanting in the history of the
Buddhist Church of China, but the few persecutions which
did arise were directed against abuses, excesses and excres-
cences of the Buddhist creed and hierarchy and not against
the Buddhist religion as a whole. Chinese history does not
appear to know any martyrs of the Buddhist faith as such.
A persecution broke out in the fifth century directed
against the excessive mumber of monasteries which had
been established. In the sixth century the Buddhist
doctrines of celibacy and monasticism were declared to
have a mischievous effect, producing too many drones in

tl>

8 Lecture the First.

the social org-anism and interfering- with the financial
})roductiveness of ag-riculture. Many Buddhist books were
then burned, but no priest is known to have been put to
death for these reasons. In the ninth century laws were
enacted, which have survived to the present day, requiring
paternal consent in the case of minors and an official permit
in the case of persons of age before any such persons
can legally be admitted as' novices in a monastery or
nunnery. At the same time, from considerations of political
economy, many monasteries were secularized or destroyed.
A law made in the fourteenth century, exempting Buddhist
monasteries from taxation, was amended in the following
century by fixing a certain limit as to the amount of real
estate to be held by monasteries.

This is about all that the Buddhist Church of China
suffered in the way of persecution. It is evident that the
uniform policy of the Chinese Government all along was
not to meddle with the creed or the internal affairs of the
Buddhist Church as a whole and to guard only against
dangers arising from excess or abuse of Buddhist theories
or practices to the prejudice of the political and social

organism.

This is the more remarkable when we observe the
attitude which the same Government assumed and con-
sistently maintained to the present day towards the Chris-
tian religion. The amplification of Kang-hi's Sacred Edict
(A.D. 16?0), issued by his son Yung-cheng (A.D. 1724),
attacks, in the case of Christianity, not merely abuses as in
the case of Buddhism, but it declares Christianity itself

BiuldhiiiUh, LUb Euciib in History. 39

to be 'an unsound and corrupt relig'ion,' and expressly
calls u])on the people that they ' should on no account
believe it.' The policy of modern Chinese statesmen
consistently carries out the views of Yunf^'-cheng' when
it declares European Christianity to be as radically dang*-
erous to the welfare of China as Indian opium.

But whilst the Government of China uniformly ac-
corded to Buddhism an amount of toleration v/hicli it deli-
berately refused to g-rant to the Christian religion, this
toleration was generally accorded to Buddhism in a marked
spirit of contemptuous condescension. The grantin^^ of
toleration always implies a sense of absence of real dang-er
and a declaration of inferiority. In the case of Chinese
Buddhism it is a patent fact that it never became popular or
strong" enough to inspire Confucian statesmen with either
respect or fear. Whilst the Tauist Church prudently
adopted the Tibetan idea of a supreme pontificate trans-
mitted by successive re-incarnations and thus attained at
least to a semblance of unity, the Buddhists of China have
ever remained divided into a number of opposing- societies.
From the earliest centuries the Buddhist Churches of China
w'ere divided into two conflicting- camps, the so-called ex-
oteric schools maintaining- more of the doctrinal and ascetic
character of primitive Southern Buddhism, whilst the so-
called esoteric schools were distinguished by the mystic and
speculative tendencies peculiar to Northern Buddhism.
Moreover, in the course of time, each of these two factions
became sub-divided within itself by numerous schisms
into a mabs of sccls^ each of which wa>-: re[)resented by

JfO Lecture the First,

some leading monastery. The consequence of this internal
strife was that the Buddhists of China never succeeded in
perfecting their common ecclesiatical organisation so as
to attain of their own accord to the unity of one Church,
but Chinese Buddhism remained, apart from its connection
with the State, to the present day an atomic aggregate
of provincial monasteries and nunneries.

Thus it happened that Buddhism, as it failed to inspire
the mass of the Chinese people with respect for its dis-
tinctive tenets, failed also to attain as a Church to sufficient
unity and power to inspire the Chinese Government with
either respect or fear. This being the case, the Chinese
Government could afford, with complacent condescension,
to give to the Buddhist Church of China that unity which
it was unable to produce by its own efforts. The rules of
constitution of the Chinese Empire, which have remained
substantially the same during the last decade of centuries,
distinctly recognize Buddhism as a body-politic. Whilst
exempting Buddhism from interference with its forms of
worship and granting to the various monasteries the right
of holding property and freedom of internal administration,
the rules of constitution require that in each district,
prefecture and department, throughout the eighteen pro-
vinces of China, two abbots be selected from the leading
monasteries as official representatives of the Buddhist
priesthood of their respective localities. These two abbots,
bearing the official title of Principal Superior and Deputy
Superior of the Buddhist priesthood, act as the medium of
communication between the secular authorities and the

Bitcldhisin, an Event in History. 41

clergy in every individual district of China. They are
accordino-Iy invested with certain judicial powers, to
preserve order and peace among- the adherents of the
Buddhist Church for whose g-eneral good conduct they are
held solidarily responsible. They are especially also held
responsible for the observance, on the part of the priest-
hood, of the laws of the State and of all fiscal and police
regulations made by the local authorities, and they are
bound to produce in court any priest or nun charg-ed with
a criminal oifence.

The following- extracts, literally translated by myself
from a late edition (1879) of the Penal Code of China, will
illustrate still further the exact position which the Buddhist
Church of China now occupies in relation to the State.

Section 42. Persons designated in law as Tauist priests
or Tauist nuns shall be treated in the same manner as
Buddhist priests or Buddhist nuns ; their relation to novices
admitted by them, in the manner in which disciples are
admitted by teachers, shall be treated as if it were a
relationship between the elder and younger uncles of a
family.

Section 77, Apart from the already existing- establish-
ments, no additional Buddhist (or Tauist) monastery, no
additional (Tauist or) Buddhist nunnery shall hereafter
be secretly established or enlarged. Any otfence against
this enactment shall be punished with one hundred blows,
and if the offender is a Buddhist (or Tauist) priest, he shall
further be excluded from the priesthood and perpetually
banished to the frontier, but if the offender is a Buddhist

Jf2 Lectivre the Mrst.

(or Tauist) nun, she shall be condemned to penal servitude
for life. If a (Tauist or) Buddhist, without previously
obtaining' an official permit, secretly enters the priesthood
and for that purpose shaves the whole head (as Buddhists
do), or assumes the (Tauist) hair tuft, he shall be punished
with eig'hty blows. If it is done at the instigation of
the head of the offender's family, such head of the family
concerned shall be treated as guilty of the same offence.
If the superintendent of any Buddhist (or Tauist)
monastery, or a priest who answers the relation of teacher
to pupil, secretly admits any person into the priesthood, he
shall be treated as guilty of the same offence, and shall
himself be excluded from the priesthood.

Section 114. Any Buddhist (or Tauist) priest, taking
to himself a wife or concubine, shall be punished with
eighty blows and he shall further be excluded from the priest-
hood. The person thus giving away a female in marriage or
concubinage to a priest, shall be treated as guilty of the
same offence. Separation of the married couple is to be
effected, and the betrothal money is to be forfeited to the
Government. The superior of the Buddhist (or Tauist)
monastery concerned in the case, shall, if cognizant of the

affair, be treated as guilty of the same offence, but if he be
only implicated secondarily through others, he need not be
excluded from the priesthood, and if it be established that
he was entirely ignorant of the matter, he shall not be held
liable at all. If a Buddhist (or Tauist) priest, pretending-
to seek a wife for a layman, a relative or young servant
of his, actually appropriates the woman for himself, it shall

Buddhism, an Event in History. J^S

be treated as a case of illicit intercourse on the part of the
Buddhist (or Tauist) priest concerned, but the punishment
shall be two degrees heavier than in a case of illicit
intercourse of private persons acting with mutual consent.
The woman concerned shall be returned to her family, and
the betrothal money shall be forfeited to the Government.
But should there be anv force used in the matter, the case
shall be treated as a case of rape.

Section 17G. Every Buddhist (or Tauist) priest or nun
is equally required by law to render the customary obeisance
to his or her parents (on stated occasions). They shall also
offer the customary sacrificial worship to their respective
deceased ancestors, including- the progenitors of the whole
respective clan. In the case of any death happening in
their respective families, they shall observe the customary
mourning according to the various degrees of relationship,
that is to say, they must observe the proper distinctions
customarily made in the case of the death of parents
or other relatives, the distinctions of long and short mourn-
ing, the distinctions made as to the material of the mourn-
ing garments to be worn in each case, all which distinc-
tions must be observed by priests or nuns in the same way
as is customary in private life. Offenders against this en-
actment shall be punished with one hundred blows and
excluded from the priesthood. Buddhist (and Tauist)
priests shall be restricted to the use of plain silk, gauze
and cloth, and they shall not be permitted to wear damask
or other variegated materials. Offenders against this en-
actment shall be punished with fifty blows and excluded

4^ Lecture the First.

from the priesthood. The materials shall be forfeited to
the Government. The kachaya and other clerical vestments
shall not he included in this prohibition.

It is evident from the foregoing extracts from the
Penal Code of China, that the question of Church and
State has been definitely settled, as far as the Buddhist
Church of China is concerned, by a complete subjugation
of the (;hurch under the State. It is obvious that the
position here assigned to the Buddhist Church is anything
but diQ-nified. Whilst the holders of secular official rank
are exempt from corporal punishment, priests charged with
a criminal offence are not allowed the privilege of com-
mutation by payment of a line, whilst the scale of punish-
ment applied in the case of a priest is heavier than that
applied in the case of private persons. Another peculiar
feature is the provision made (in Section 176) to insure a
recognition on the part of the Buddhist clergy of the claim
of superiority due to the national religion and ceremonial
as sanctioned by Confucianism with regard to ancestral
worship. A third prominent feature of the relations in
which the Buddhist Church stands to the State consists
in the control which the State exercises (by virtue of
Section 77) regarding all admissions to the priesthood, and
the power which the State thus wields to stop all farther
admission of novices or the establishment of any additional
monastic institution in any given district where the number
of priests exceeds a certain proportion of the number of the
])opulation. This systematic subjugation of the Church
must appear the more galling", when it is considered that

Buddhism, mi Event hi Eistovy. Jf5

the Buddhist Church of China receives no endowments or
emohiments from the State but is maintained hy the peoj)lc
on the vohintar}' principle.

CHURCH AND STATE IN TIBET.

§ 18. — The position which the Buddhist Church of
Tibet occupies in relation to the State is widely different
from that which we have observed in the case of Chinese
Buddhism.

We remarked above (§ IG) that in the eleventh century
the Buddhist clergy of Tibet succeeded in establishing- a
hereditary hierarchy which eventually gained the mastery
over all the various kings then ruling the country. This
Buddhist hierarchy developed and organized itself under
distinctly Nestorian influences. As the priesthood com-
bined in their hands the supreme temporal and spiritual
government of the nation, it was considered necessary
for the stability of priestly rule to secure for the priesthood
the exclusive monopoly of hereditary transmission of power.
Celibacy, one of the distinctive features of orthodox
Buddhism, was accordingly abolished and the marriage of
priests was formally sanctioned.

But this measure destroyed the popular prestige of the
priesthood and eventually produced a revolution which
led in the fifteenth century to the establishment of a
Reformed Church by Tsongkhaba (about 1450 A.D.),
henceforth known as the Yellow Church, in con-
tradistinction from the ancient Church which, on account
of the colour of its ve.stmentS; was known as the Jled

^6 Lecture the First

Church. But instead of returning to the original simplicity
of primitive Buddhism, Tsong-khaha promulgated the
mystic doctrines of the Mahayana School and adopted
only such reforms as he found necessary to gain for his
party the ascendancy in popular favour over the waning
influence of the Red Church. His chief aim was to oust
the latter and to secure for the hierarchy of his own
Church the perpetual succession of spiritual and temporal
sovereignty. For this purpose he adopted the whole
organization of the Roman Catholic Church and, by virtue
of the inherited semi-Christian proclivities of Tibetan
Buddhists, Tsongkhaba's scheme met with such popular
success that it has survived even to the present day. It is
therefore not a matter of surprise if we are told, as in-
deed it is a fact, that the Buddhist Church of Tibet has
its popes, cardinals, prelates, bishops, abbots, priests and
nuns, that the Buddhists of Tibet have their infant baptism,
their confirmation, their ordination and investiture, their
mass for the dead, litanies, chants and antiphones,
rosaries, chaplets, candles and holy water, processions and
pilgrimages, saints' days and fast days, and so forth.

Whilst re-establishing, in opposition to the Red
Church, the rule of celibacy and otherwise reforming
the organization and ritual of Buddhism, Tsongkhaba
obtained for the temporal and spiritual pontificate of Tibet
the support of the Chinese Government,— of which more
anon, — and secured the regular transmission of papal
sovereignty by an ingenious adaptation of the Shivaitic
notion of successive avatars or re-incarnations (Khubil-

Buddhism, an Event in History. J^'lf

khan). Appointing- his two principal disciples as perpetual
sovereign pontiffs^ one of whom was to act as temporal
sovereign under the title of Dalai Lama and the other
as spiritual sovereign under the title of Pansheii Erdeni
Lama, he promulgated a new dogma of perpetual succession
by successive re-incarnations. Each of those two newly
appointed pontii^fs, he declared, should after his natural de-
mise be reborn immediately. Each successor thus obtained
to the vacant pontificate should, after his death, likewise
be immediately reborn, as Khubilkhan, in human form,
for generation after generation. Moreover, each successive
re-embodiment of the Dalai Lama should be revered as an
incarnation of Avalokiteshvara (the apotheosis of mercy)
and each successive re-embodiment of the Panshen Lama
should receive worship as an incarnation of Mandjushri
(the apotheosis of wisdom). This ingenious idea of suc-
cessive re-embodiments, established by Tsongkhaba, w^as
subsequently applied to the filling- up of all vacancies
occurrino< in the hioher offices of the Tibetan Church, all
these dignitaries being considered as divine re-embodiments
of their predecessors in office, and all are therefore re-
garded and designated as ' living Buddhas.'

But the same reformer, Tsongkhaba, who by this idea
of successive avatars successfully devised for the liierarchy
a sort of perpetual ai)ostolic succession, which was to be the
means of securing- for the Church perpetual sovereignty
in both the temporal and spiritual affairs of the nation,
unwittingly laid the foundation thereby for the complete
subjugation of the national Church under the temporal

Jf8 Lecture the First

power of an alien State. To strengthen his influence and
to secure the stability and permanency of his measures of
reform, Tsong-khaba entered into an alliance with the
Chinese Emperors of the Ming- dynasty, who thenceforth
exercised a gradually increasing control over the Buddhist
hierarchy of Tibet. When the present Tatsing dynasty
completed its conquest of China, the two Grand Lamas of
the Tibetan nation tendered their allegiance (A.D. 1542)
and the Government of Peking has ever since retained
the supreme tutelage of the Buddhist papacy and hierarchy
of Tibet. Since the middle of last century the Chinese
Government placed the whole conduct of Tibetan affairs,
both spiritual and temporal, into the hands of a council con-
sisting of the Dalai Lama, the Panshen Erdeni Lama, and
four laymen, under the supervision of two Chinese Commis-
sioners. The latter are the real powers both in the Church
and in the State in Tibet, and the Grand Lamas are but
puppets in their hands. And this has been brought about
principally by means of Tsongkhaba's original scheme of
apostolic succession through successive re-embodiments.
This scheme required each vacancy in the pontificate
(or other high office) to be filled up by a new-born babe
selected, under the control of the Chinese Government,
from a large number of infants whose birth coincided
with the death of the respective pontiff (or other
dignitary), provided that such birth was connected with
auspicious signs favouring an artificial analogy with the
spiritual characteristics of the vacant office. As the
decision upon such analogies naturally produced disputes

BLuldhlstn, an Event in History. 4^

on each occasion, the Chinese Government easily manag-ed
to ohtain the right of ultimate decision as to the merits of
eligible candidates for any vacant office. Moreover, as each
newly appointed pontiff or other high dignitary is necessari-
ly an infant, the long ensuing minority of each gives addi-
tional room for the exercise of all sorts of political intrigues.
Since the end of the last century all the higher offices of
the Tibetan Church and State are filled up, on Tsong-
khaba's principle, by means of a curious lottery scheme
devised by the Chinese Emperor Kien-lung (A.D. 1792).
On the decease of either of the two pontiffs, or any other
high dignitary, inquiries are made by the priesthood as to
any miraculous omens or signs connected with the birth
or bodily appearance of any infant that came into the world
at the time when the previous occupant of the vacant office
died. The infant candidates thus brought forward by the
priesthood, and their respective problematic claims to be
an incarnation of the deceased dignitary, are submitted to

the Imperial Commissioners who, in the case of the highest
office vacancies, refer the matter with their recommen-
dations to Peking. The Chinese Government selects a few
names from among the large number submitted. Thereupon

the names of the few candidates approved by the Chinese
Government are written on wooden tablets which are
deposited, in the presence of the Tibetan clergy, in a golden
urn. The child whose name is then first drawn forth from
the urn, is forthwith under public acclamation solemnly
enthroned by the clergy as the re-embodiment of the de-
ceased diii-iiitury. But the Chinese Government wields

so Lecture the First.

also a right of veto. Some time ag"o the Chinese Govern-
ment, wishing" to abolish a certain high office in Tibet, did
it on the decease of the last occupant of the office by simply
issuing" an Imperial edict, actually published in the Peking
Gazette, informing- the Tibetan pontificate that ^ His Ma-
jesty the Emperor of China had been pleased to forbid the
deceased dignitary for ever the privilege of re-appearing"
again on earth in human form.' As the Chinese Govern-
ment controls thus the succession of the Grand Lamas and
other hig-h dignitaries of the Tibetan State Church and pulls
the string's of this ecclesiastical lottery from the first ex-
amination of candidates to the final enthronement of the
favoured Khubilkhan, it is not a matter of surprise that the
whole g-overument of the Tibetan Church is virtually in the
hands of the Court of Pekinji'.

We have therefore in the Tibetan Church a unique
example of a Church combining' in itself the nominal so-
vereig-nty over both the spiritual and temporal afiairs of a
whole nation. And yet this same Church has obtained
this nominal sovereig-nty and subsists in the exercise of
this singular combination of power only at the expense of
its own national independence. The hierarchy of Tibet,
though combining in itself both State and Church govern-
ment, is as hopelessly subjugated as the Buddhist Church
of China. The principal difference between the position of
(Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism is this that the dignity of
the Church is not so ruthlessly trodden under foot by the
secular power as it is in China. B»jt, on the other hand,
whilst the Chinese Buddhist Church i« the bondservant

Buddhism, an Event in History. 51

of its own nation, the Tibetan Church is enslaved by a
foreign power.

HISTORIC VALUE OF BUDDHISM.

§ 19. — In conclusion, I will only say, that Buddhism,
considered merely as an event in history, seems to me to
have been more of a blessing than a curse.

I sincerely believe, that Buddhism has fulfilled a great
mission which it was appointed to fulfil by the providence
of God. Rude and isolated tribes which were living in a
state of utter savageness, were sought out and brought into
a state of semi-civilisation, which is the more apparent, if
we consider in what a savage state all those tribes remained
which rejected Buddhism.

What the Mongols were before they became Bud-
dhists, is written with blood on the pages of Asiatic his-
tory. Those very countries and peoples, which were shut
out from centres of civilisation by mountains and deserts,
were visited and brought under the influence of morality
by those indefatigable Buddhist zealots, for whom no
mountain was too high, no desert too dreary. In countries
like China and Japan, where Buddhism found a sort of
civilisation existing, it acted like a dissolving acid, under-
mining the existing religious systems, and thus preparing
the way for a new religion to enter, — for Christanity, if
we had but half the faith and perseverance that inspired
those disciples of Buddha.

5^ Lecture the Second.

LECTURE THE SECOND.

BUDDHISM, A THEORETICAL SYSTEM.

THE DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM.

§ 20. — In the preceding lecture on the subject of Bud-
dhism 1 treated this grand system of religion merely as an
event in history, and endeavoured to give to my readers an
outline of its origin, rise and progress, combined with a
brief sketch of its present condition and extent. If I have
not altogether failed in my attempt to define the place
which Buddhism occupies in the history of the world,
and to assist the reader in forming a correct estimate of the
manner in which it fulfilled its great mission to one third
of the human race, he must have felt with me, that Bud-
dhism is but a voice that crieth in the wilderness.

The religion of Buddhism arose from a natural reaction
and protest against the abnormal features, religious and
social, of Brahmanism. It was fostered and sustained
by the instinctive cry of the better part in human nature
for release from the misery and hoUowness of this present
evil world ; and thus it succeeded in spreading more or less
throughout Eastern Asia a lively yearning for an invisible

Buddhism, a Theoretical System. 63

better world, for a paradise of peace and happiness beyond
the rang-e of mortal ken.

But it remains now to show what it was that voice
proclaimed, what means it emplo3''ed to rouse the dormant
conscience, what food it offered to hungry and thirsty
souls, what discipline it enforced to regulate man's conduct,
what elements of truth it conveyed to the seekers of it.
In one word, having* viewed Buddhism as an event in
history, I now proceed to consider Buddhism as a re-
ligious system, from a doctrinal point of view.

DEVELOFMENT OF TEE BUDDHIST DOGMA.

§ 21. — No religion on earth has ever remained
stationary for any length of time. The Christianity of
to-day is not and cannot be made to return to what it was
eighteen hundred years ago. The Buddhist religion has
undergone still more changes in the course of time, through
the absence of a written canon at its first starting, through
the influence of oral propagation and tradition, through
contact with different religions and forms of superstition,
and — last but not least — through the reaction of different
nationalities which it more or less fully conquered.

Naturally therefore I feel tempted to again treat our
subject historically. I might start with a sketch of the
Buddhist dogma in its primitive form, as it first came out
of the hands of him who gave to it the characteristics
and general shape which no after revolution has been able
wholly to efface. It was then a system, diametrically
opposeil to Brahmanism whence it had arisen and yet still

5 If Lecture the Second,

possessing' many marks of resemblance ; a conglomeration
of ideas, partly original, partly borrowed from Brahmanism
and early Shivaism, but now clothed in the new garb
of Buddhism, hastily thrown over and as yet as ill fitting
as Saul's armour upon David.

I might then note the first attempt made to reduce the
cha:os of new and borrowed ideas into systematic order, the
first phase of the development through which the Buddhist
dogma passed. This system was subsequently charac-
terized by the name of the Ilinayana system, or the School
of the small conveyance, a name referring to the various
means by which consecutive forms of Buddhism offered to
* convey' the believer across the ocean of misery, to the
shores of salvation, into the haven of Nirvana.

This first period in the development of the Buddhist
dogma is called the small conveyance, because the forms of
doctrine and of worship were limited, plain, and simple
then, compared with the elaborate systems of after times.
Buddhism was then a system of exclusively moral as-
ceticism, teaching certain commandments^ rigorously
enforcing an ascetic life of the strictest morality, temperance,
and active, self-denying and self-sacrificing charity.

But soon after the beginning of our Christian era,
when Buddhism had overcome its first difficulties and had
leisure to enjoy the first taste of triumph, having spread
from India to Ceylon, and northwards, through the
Punjab, into Central Asia and across the Himalaya as far
as China, — the energetic, practical asceticism of the
Hinayana school was replaced by a new phase of doctrine,

BitdcUdsni, a TJieoretical System. do

called the Mahayana system, or the School of the great con-
veyance. The characteristics of this system are an excess
of transcendental speculation, which soon drifted into
listless quietism or abstract nihilism, and substituted
fanciful deg'rees of contemplation and ecstatic meditation
for })lain practical morality.

It was the former School, the system of tlie small
conveyance, that produced the men who actually resigned
their all, and with irresistible energy and enthusiasm
spread Buddhism far and wide all over Eastern Asia, the
men, who for their faith in Buddha scaled the snowy
mountains of the Himalaya and crossed the sandy deserts
of Central Asia. But now this Mahayana system, this
School of the great conveyance, with its refined philosophy
and abstruse metaphysics, with its elaborate ritual and
idolatrous symbolism, produced an entirely different type
of heroes ; men, who would glory in public disputations,
who would let the most subtle dialectician come forth
and split a hair, — they would split it over and over again ;
men, who would retire into the stillness of deserts or the
solitude of mountain dens, or shut themselves up in the
monotony of cloister life, to muse, brood and dream, like
Tennyson's lotos-eaters; men, who like the first Chinese
])atriarch would sit twelve years gazing at a wall without
moving, without speaking, without thinking.

The Iliiiayana School however remained, though
overpowered, yet still exerting some influence, and an
attempt was made in the so-called Madhyiniayaua School, or
the svstem of the medium conveyance, to combine the

56 Lecture the Second.

above mentioned two Schools, to find the golden mean
between practical asceticism and quietistic transcendent-
alism, but — like all compromises — it never gained much
influence and found but few followers.

For a new system soon arose, more powerful, more
fascinating than any of its predecessors. It is known by the
name of the Tantra School. The hermits of the mountains
had become acquainted with the medicinal properties of
many herbs and professed to possess the elixir of immorta-
lity (which — I suspect — was but opium from India). The
monks in the cloisters had become adepts in the black
art, and gained popularity now as mantists, sorcerers and
exorcists, who would banish drought, famine, pestilence,
disease and devils by magic incantations. Thus practically
useful, and fortified by alHance with the various forms
of popular superstition, the Tantra School extracted more-
over from the Mahayana system all that was congenial
with its own tendencies, and thus produced a new system
of practical philosophic mysticism, sorcery and witchcraft,
and overlaid the ritual of the Buddhist Church with
fantastic ceremonies and mystic liturgies.

It was this School that turned out the priests, who, as
rain-makers, geomancers, or astrologers, duped emperors
and peoples, and who exercise to the present day in the
whole of Eastern Asia the strongest influence over the
lower classes, as sorcerers, exorcists and physicians. They
chant the litanies for the dead j they save souls from hell.
But while the Tantra School thus gained the day with the
multitude; through its practical usefulness and politic ac-

Biuldhisni, a Theoretical S/j stent. 57

commodation to the superstitious element in human nature,
the Mahayana School continued to exert a powerful influence
in the province of* literature, among* the educated and the
learned and produced many different systems of philosophy,
of which not less than eig-hteen are known by name.

Moreover the ancient Hinayana School also retained
its foothold to some extent, or was revived here and there,
in different countries by certain sects. In fact, every one of
the above mentioned forms of development, through which
the Buddhist dog-ma passed in the course of centuries, has
left its deposit behind, in the form of sects, or factions, or
parties, still existing- in modern Buddhism. But these are
not separated by prominent landmarks from each other,
they run into and interming-le with each other, more or
less, in almost every country.

Now under these circumstances it seems to me, that,
at least for a popular lecture like this, an historical syn-
thetic treatment of the rise, progress, and development of

the Buddhist dogma would become an exceedingly com-
plicated task, necessitating- many reiterations, multifarious
distinctions and limitations. And after all, if treated with
the necessar}'^ minuteness and detailed accuracy, it would
fail to produce a complete and at the same time intellig-ible
picture. It would be more like a drama, not wanting- in-
deed in progress of action, rich in striking- incidents, in
difference of characters and varied beauty of pageantry,
but too complicated to be ])erspicuous and too full of pro-
miscuous details to bring home to the spectator the hidden
unity of the whole.

5S Lecture the Second.

SUMMARY OF THE BUDDHIST DOGMA.

§ 22. — I prefer therefore to adopt a different course.
Instead of building up before the eyes of my readers the
whole edifice of Buddhist doctrines from the very founda-
tions, instead of showing- to them how one stone was laid
upon the other, how one tier was raised upon the other,
how one gallery intercommunicates with or crosses the
other, I will give but a general sketch of the completed
structure, a bird's-eye view of the whole.

Vast, intricate, and puzzling as the system of Bud-
dhism appears to any one that enters its sacred halls, wan-
ders from shrine to shrine, through its temples and clois-
ters, gazes at its pagodas and images, or searches through
its libraries, rich in ancient and modern lore, — the whole
labyrinth becomes plain and intelligible, when looked at
from a distance, when one sees the very ground plan on
which it has been constructed, when no bewildering
details obstruct the view of the grand, simple and natural
outlines of the whole.

One plan, clear and distinct, underlies the whole
network of Buddhist doctrines. One continuous thread
runs straight through the whole tangled woof of seeming
dogmatic confusion. In spite of the changes which time,
difference of nationalities, different Schools and modes of
thinking have wrought, there is still discernible a group
of fundamental doctrines which remained through all ages,
in all countries, the common property of all Buddhists,

Biuldldsin, a Theoretical System. 59

And these very doctrines will be found to contain the es-
sence and substance of the whole system.

I propose therefore to treat my subject analytically.
I will first of all take hold of those general characteristics,
arrange them systematically, and examine them more or
less minutely. Then I may go on to the disputed points,
to the points of difference, and see how Buddhism varies in
different countries. The latter subject will however be
reserved for the third lecture.

PECULIARITIES OF BUDDHIST DOGMATICS.

§ '33. — One remark more is necessary, before I can
begin with this task. The materials for a systematic ex-
position of the Buddhist dogma, in an intelligible and
scientific form, are not ready to hand, and we find espe-
cially that they do not easily fit into our way of express-
ing thoughts and connecting ideas.

Ag-ain, there is nowhere in Buddhist literature a
ITutterus redivivuSj a concise but complete compendium of
the whole range of dogmas j there is no catechism that
would give you the whole system in a condensed, popular
and intelligible form. One has to search through all the
mines of Buddhist literature, hunt up a stone here and
there, quarry it, dress it, before you can handle it with the
finer tools of European logic and fit it into the systematic
classifications of Western thought.

Asiatic diction loves to clothe naked truths in the
gaudy glittering apparel of symbolic, typical and allegorical
language. As Asiatic architecture is characterized l)y

00 Lecture the Second.

richness of decoration, thus the g-rand structure of Bud-
dhist dog-matolog-y is so encumbered and overlaid with
fantastic ornament, most of its truths are so disg'uised in
the form of myths, fables, parables or symbols, that many
mistake the outer form for the substance, the shell for the
kernel, and the result is, that a very master thought of vast
speculative depth becomes ridiculous nonsense in the hand
of a superficial expositor.

I will give but one example. It is said, for instance,
in all Buddhist works treating* on cosmogony, that every
universe comes into existence in the following manner : out
of the chaos of waters rises a lotos flower, out of this flower
rises the universe unfolding successively its various spheres,
heavenly and terrestrial. Now, this same idea one may see
repeated in popular Buddhist literature, illustrated by
wood-cuts which represent the chaos of water, with a
thousand flowers floating on it, each lotos flower supporting
a whole universe. And European expositors of Buddhism,
repeating this gross representation of a speculative truth,
treat it as a piece of absurdity, fancying that it is the
belief of Buddhists that every universe sprouts out of an
actual lotos flower of gigantic dimensions! Bat in reality
the whole is a mere simile, and the idea conveyed in this
flowery language of Buddhism is of highly poetic and truly
speculative import, amounting to this : that, as a lotos
flower, gTowing out of a hidden germ beneath the water,
rises up, slowly, mysteriously, until it suddenly appears
above the surface and unfolds its bud, leaves and pistils,
in marvellous richness of colour and chastest beautv of

Biuldliisni, a Theoretical System. 61

form ; thus also, in the system of worlds, each single
universe rises into being, evolved out of a primitive germ,
the first origin of which is veiled in myster}'", and finally
emerges out of the chaos, gradually unfolding itself,
one kingdom of nature succeeding the other, all forming
one compact whole, pervaded by one breath, but varied in
beauty and form. Truly an idea, so far removed from
nonsense, that it might be taken for an utterance of
Darwin himself. It reminds one, in fact, of that un-
pretending little poem of Tennyson's :

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crauuies ; —
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand.
Little flower — but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what Grod and man is.

In tiie same way many other doctrines of Buddhism,
handed down from antiquity in language borrowed from
types of vegetable or animal life, in allegories or by the
use of symbols and mystic emblems, have been mis-
understood and superciliously classed among antiquated
notions and infantile babblings.

But considering that Buddhism was started when
humanity was in its infancy, and that Buddhism addressed
itself to the primary work of educating savage tribes, it
was not only natural, but educationally wise, when it
chose a crude, imperfect, infantile mode of expressing
its thoughts, when it spoke to those rude tribes of Asia,
children as they were, in the language of children.

I do not deny that, in man}' cases, and especially in all

62 Lecture the Second.

references to cosmolog-y, astronomy, geography, and all

other branches of natural science, it is not only the form

of expression, but the ideas themselves, that may be called

childish. The Buddhist scriptures have not observed the

wise reticence with regard to natural science by which our

Christian bible is marked. They abound therefore with

statements of extreme absurdity. They tell us, for instance,

with the utmost gravity and with the authority of

insj)iration, that in the centre of every universe there

is a high mountain, the lofty peak of which supports

the heavenly mansions, whilst at the foot of this same

mountain, far beneath the earth, there are grouped the

innumerable chambers of hell; they tell us that in the

centre of the Himalaya mountains there is one large sea,

from which all the large rivers of the world take their

origin, the Hoangho, the Ganges, the Indus and the Oxus ;

they inform us that the sea water contains salt, because the

dragon god of the ocean, whenever one of his temporary

fits of rage comes over him, throws up with his gigantic

tail volumes of water which inundate even the heavenly

mansions above, and it is this water which in flowing

back carries with it all the filth accumulated in the drains

and sewers of heaven, and thus, we are told, it happens that

the sea water gets its peculiar taste.

I allude to these things^ merely to indicate that I
believe it would be unjust to pick out any of those queer
and childish sayings with which the Buddhist scriptures
and especially popular Buddhist books abound, and to
lead people to imagine that Buddhism is little better

Bitddhisnv, a Theoretical System. 63

than a string* of nonsense. But I ma}"" add that it is even
doubtful whether the earliest Buddhist texts contained
such statements at all.

The Buddhists never cared to preserve their sacred
scriptures in their orig-inal integ*ritj. Unlike our bible,
the Buddhist canon has underg-one wholesale textual
alterations; it has been edited and re-edited a g-reat many
t'mes, and every editor introduced into the text the
favourite ideas of his time and his School.

As to the popular literature of Buddhism and its
absurdities, we mig*ht as well collect those little pamphlets
on dreams, on sorcery, on lucky and unlucky days, on the
lives and miracles of saints, which circulate among* Roman
Catholic j)easants, — but would that g-ive us a true picture
of Roman Catholicism ? Thus it is with Buddhism.

Those crude, childish and absurd notions concerning"
the universe and physical science do not constitute
Buddhism. This g-reat relig'ion, imperfect and false as
it is to a g-reat extent, does not stand or fall with such
absurdities. They are merely accidental, unimportant
outworks, which may fall by the advance of knowledg-e,
which may be rased to the ground by the prog-ress of
civilisation, and yet the Buddhist fortress may remain
as strong', as impregnable, as before. A Buddhist may
adopt all the results of modern science, he may become
a follower of Newton, a disciple of Darwin, and yet remain
a Buddhist.

The strong- point of Buddhism lies in its morality, and
this morality is, to say the least, equal to the secular

6'4 Lecture the Second,

morality of our civilised world. It is not secular civilisa-
tion therefore, but Christianity alone, that has a chance
against Buddhism, because Christianity alone teaches a
morality loftier, strong-er, holier than that of Buddhism,
because Christianity alone satisfies the soul's craving for
personal communion with a personal Saviour, because
Christianity alone can touch, can convert the heart, for
there — in the heart of the natural man — it is where the
roots of Buddhism lie.

THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF PHYSICS.

§ 2-i. — I remarked above, that there is a train of ideas
which form the foundation of the whole system of Buddhism
and have been retained through all ages and in all countries
as the common property of all Buddhists. To place these
fundamental doctrines before my readers in a connected
systematic form, I will begin with the Buddhist views
of physical nature.

Before Buddhism arose, the thinking minds of India
had been taught to look upon the visible universe ' as one
stupendous whole, whose body nature is and God the soul.'
But this God, or Brahma, was viewed only in a pantheistic
sense, as an impersonal substance, as the one uncreated,
self-existent, immutable entity, from which the whole uni-
verse emanated, which pervades all forms of existence as
the principle of life pervades the body, and into which all
will ultimately be re-absorbed.

Buddhism took a different view of the universe. Bud-
dhism knows no creative prime agent, no supramundane or

Biuldhism, a Tltcoretical System. 65

ante-mundane principle, no pre-existing* spirit, no primitive
matter. The very idea of being' has no room in the Bud-
dhist system. For all and everything; is in a constant
Hux, rising" into existence and ebbing* away again, deve-
loping- by a process of evolution and disappearing; again by
a similar process of involution, perpetually changinj^ and
reproducing" itself in an eternal circle, without beginning-,
as it were, and without end.

But Buddhism does not say that our world is without
beg-inning or without end. For the universe, in which we
live, is but one of an endless number of world systems.
Every one of these innumerable co-existing- worlds has
individually a beginning- and comes to an end, but onl}' to
be reconstructed again, in order to be destroyed again in
endless succession. What is eternal therefore and abso-
lutely without beginning is not any individual world or
universe, but the mere law of revolution, the mere idea of
constant rotation throu2:h formation, destruction and re-
construction, or rather the polar force of evolution and
involution.

To the question, how the very first universe was ori-
ginally brought into existence, and whence that eternal
law of ceaseless reproduction came, Buddhism honestly
confesses to have no reply. When this very query was
put before Buddha, he remained silent, and after some
pressure explained, that none but a Buddha might com-
prehend this pro])lem, that the solution of it was absolutely
beyond the understanding ol the finite mind.

Tins rU'kudwlcdgmpnt of tlip liuiifs of religious thouglit.

66 Lecture the Second.

honest and praiseworthy as it is, reveals to us the weakness
of this system of Atheism. It acknowledged a design in
nature, it recognized immutable laws underlying the end-
less modifications of organic and inorganic life, and at-
tained, even so long as two thousand years ago, to that
remarkable Darwinian idea of a pre-existing spontaneous
tendency to variation as the real cause of the origin of
species, but — like Darwin and his School — it stopped short
of pointing out Him, who originated the first commence-
ment of that so-called spontaneous tendency, and who
laid into nature the law which regulates the whole pro-
cess of natural selection, God, the creator and sustainer
of the universe.

Regarding the way in which each world system rises

into being out of the germ of a previous universe, the

Buddhist scriptures speak in a rather obscure phraseology.

Out of the chaos, produced by the destruction of a former

universe, rises a cloud which sends down fructifying rain.

Thereupon numberless buds of new worlds sprout up like

lotos flowers, floating on the water, each world developing

first its sublimest heavenly portion and then its terrestrial

parts. In the latter also the lower regions and forms of

existence are developed out of the nobler ones, the lower

classes of sentient beings out of the higher ones. The

earth itself is formed out of a mould that resembles the

honey distilled in the cup of the lotos= The whole surface

of the earth is of a golden colour, emitting a delightful

frngrance, whilst a liquid is exuded thai forma the first

ambrosian food of sentient beings.

Buddhism, a Theoretical System. 67

^7

Y ■ This whole process of formation is supported by four

winds, a moist wind, a dry wind, a strengthening* wind,
and a beautifying wind; also by five clouds or atmos-
pheric influences, one that destroys all heat, one that
saturates all with moisture, one that dries up all moisture,
one that produces the minerals, and one that keeps the
different worlds asunder and produces a chasm between
heaven and earth. This is called the period (Kalpa) of
formation.

Then comes the stationary period*, a tim^e of continued
formation, at the opening of which in each world a sun and
a moon rise out of the water, whereupon — in conseq^uence
of the coarser food of which, sentient beings begin to par-
take— arises the difference of sex, before not existing; soon
after, heroes distinguish themselves above th.eir fellows,
and next, with the distinction of tlia four castes, society
is established, and monarchs arise, followed in due course
by Buddhas.

This period of continued formation is succeeded by a
time of gradual destruction through the elements of water,
fire and wind, the work of destruction l)eginning in every
universe at the lowest forms and reaching to the highest,
leaving however a germ for future re-construction un-
touched.

The period of destruction is supplemented by a
period of continued destruction, working on the same
principles and resulting finally in a total chaos, called
the period of emptiness, which in turn again is followed
by periods of formation, continued formation, destruc-

08 Lecture the Second.

tion, continued destruction-, emptiness and so on in endless
succession.

But in spite of these alternate destructions and
renovations of every univeree, each successive world is
homogeneous in. its constituent parts, having the same
continents of the same size, the same divisions of mountains,
river-systems, nationalities, countries and even cities thoug-h
under different names. Again, every world in all the
infinite systems of the cosmos is floating in empty space,
each earth having nothing beneath it but the circumambient
air, whilst the interior of each earth is incandescent.

The structure also of each earth is the same in every
universe. Four continents lie around a gigantic central
mountain, about which sun, moon, planets and stars
revolve. But the four continents are separated from
each other by the sea and from the central mountain
(which in fiict represents the axis of the world) by seven
concentric circles of rocks, each separated from the other by
an ocean, an idea suggested probably by the orbit of the
seven planets.

Above that central mountain are ranged the various
tiers of heavens, inhabited like our earth by sentient beings,
called devas, who take a constant interest in the spread
of the Buddhist religion on earth. These heavens are
however very different from the Christian idea of a
heavenly paradise, for they represent but different stages of
moral and intellectual life, and though the inhabitants
of these heavens enjoy comparatively greater happiness
and length of life than any being on earth, they live in the

u.

Biuldldsni, a Tkeoretlcal System. 09

Hesli and are subject to the same evils that flesh is heir to,
thoiig'h in a minor degree, in proportion to their moral and
intellectual advancement.

At the foot of that central mountain are ranged
the various tiers of hell, and as the heavens increase
in ascending gradation in purity and happiness of life,
so these hells increase downwards in horror and duration of
torture, the lowest hell being the worst gehenna. Strange
to say, though the Buddhists know a devil, whom they call
Mara, and ascribe to him the power of assuming any shape
he pleases, especially that of woman, in order to tempt men
from the path of virtue, the abode of this Satan is not
in hell, he rules in the air like the Christian or rather
anti-Christian prince of the power of the air. The
Budhhist hells are ruled by Yama, who himself is suffering
torture there, being among the hosts of criminals but
primus inter pares.

THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF METEMPSYCHOSIS.

Ifi^^

§ 25. — Now those heavens above and all the heavenly
X^bodies, the hells below with their innumerable chambers,
the earth and even the air that surrounds the earth, all
these localities are peopled with sentient beings, divided
indeed into different classes, but all form one community of
living beings, all pervaded by the desire to live, all doomed
to die. Neither the pains of hell nor the joys of heaven are
endless. Everywhere there is death. And death is every-
where followed, so long as the desire of existence has not
been overcome, by re-birth either into one of the hells

70 Lecture the Second.

or heavens, or on earth or in the air, in some form of
sentient existence or other, the particular condition of each
individual being* determined by the accumulated merit
or demerit of his or her previous existence.

Here we have the doctrine of transmigration. It is
not an invention of Buddhism, though it fits marvellously
well into its conception of the universe with its rotation of
formation and renovation. Long- before Buddha arose,
metempsychosis was taught by Brahmanism. In fact, the
fountain source of this doctrine may be traced back to the
oldest code book of Asiatic nations, to the Veda itself,
which plainly taught the immortality of the soul and
accustomed the Hindoo mind to consider death as but a
second birth, thus paving the way for the development
which the dogma of metempsychosis soon after received by
succeeding generations.

It was the system of Brahmanism that first
promulgated in India the idea of transmigration. Of
Brahma it is said in the Upanishads and in the code
of Manu, that the whole universe emanated from it, by
evolution, not by creation. But as everything emanates
from Brahma, so everything returns to it. Brahma is the
alpha and omega, it is both the fountain from which
the stream of life breaks forth and the ocean into which
it hastens to lose itself.

Thus the human soul emanates from Brahma, descends
to a contact with matter, defiles itself and has therefore
to pass through all the different gradations of animate
natui-e, from the lowest form of existence to the highest

Biiddhism, a Theoretical System. 71

and noblest, before it is purified enouj^-h to be fit for a
final return into the pure shoreless ocean of Brahma. All
nature is animate to the pantheist, and the circle of
transmigration is therefore of immense width. The soul
may after the dissolution of the body ascend to the moon,
to be clothed in a watery form, and returning pass succes-
sively through ether, air, vapour, mist and cloud into
rain, and thus find its way into a veg'etating- plant and
thence through the medium of nourishment into an animal
embryo.

Only those who have succeeded in destroying- all
selfish thoughts and feeling's by means of mental abstraction^
the saints only, will rest after death by being' freed from all
distinctions of form or name ; they will be dissolved into
Brahma, with which they commingle and in which they
lose themselves like a river in the ocean. Those however,
who during- their life-time indulged in selfishness, lust and
passions, will be subject to innumerable births according to
their moral condition. Every breathing being will after
death be reborn in accordance with the general tendency ot"
its inner life. Those who were moved by noble instincts
or motives with be reborn as men of a high caste. To
those who were inflamed by low desires and passions, a
lower caste will be allotted in their next birth, whilst those
who degraded their souls by beastly desires will be reborn
as beasts, say as rats or {>igs or tigers. Their souls may
even descend to a still lower circle of transmigration and,
in the way above mentioned, be finally reborn as plants,
whence thev will have <o work their wav up af;ain thrnunh

7^ Lecture the Second.

the class of beasts and the various classes of human society,
until they at last reach the goal of Brahma by continued
self-purification.

Such are the main outlines of this grand popular
system. It starts with the idea handed down from
primitive antiquity by the Veda, that the soul is in-
destructible and immortal because it is of divine origin.
It proceeds then to work out the general principle, that
every soul must be materially what it is spiritually, that is
to say, it must be clothed in a body the nature of which
corresponds to the inmost bent of the mind ; a beastly man
must be reborn a beast, a godly man must be united with
God. Dividing the empire of nature according to the
different castes of Hindoo society, it lays down the rule
that the soul, as it gradually purifies itself from contact
with matter, may have to pass through some or all of
the different classes of nature until it is finally united with
the deity. For only in absolute union and absorption
in the deity can be found peace, rest and happiness.

Buddha adopted this pantheistic dogma of metempsy-
chosis, though not without remoulding and recasting it
so as to fit into his own atheistic system. He first of all
stripped this Brahraanic idea of the soul's transmigration of
the metaphysical garb in which his contemporaries had
received it through the Vedanta philosoj)hy. In vain we
search Buddhist literature for a metaphysical treatment
of this deeply mteresting problem. In vain we search for
a distinct notion of the origin of each individual soul,
"'liich the V'^pdanta philo.sophy placed in Brnhma:

atJv' BLuldhisni, a Theoretical System. 73

, f^C^

( 0 i Biiddlia gave the dogma of the soul's transmigration

^-^ an exclusively moral basis. Nothing was farther from his
mind than the attempt to offer the doctrine of metemps}'-
chosis as a solution of the riddles connected with life after
death. He simply and solely treated metempsychosis as a
convenient theory explaining the actual distribution of good
and evil in this present world and as a handy argument to
enhance the dogma of moral retribution. J

In the place of Brahma, the fountain source and goal
of Brahmanic metempsychosis, he substituted therefore the
idea of Karma, i.e. merit and demerit. Again, whilst the
Brahmans believed each human soul to originate in and to
be part and parcel of Brahma, Buddha avoided the term
soul entirely and taught, that about the primitive origin of
each human being nothing further could be said but this:
that each living being, after the dissolution of its previous
embodiment, comes again into mundane existence and is
endowed with a new body, in accordance with its moral
merit or demerit accumulated in a previous form of ex-
istence.

Although, for the sake of convenience, we retain the
popular terra * transmigration of the soul,' it must be
understood that Buddha and the earliest preachers of
Buddhism believed, that, in the case of any given indivi-
dual, death followed by re-birth neither destroys personal
continuity nor transmits the ego of consciousness. They
considered the individual who is re-born to have no other
connection of identity with the individual who died except
the actuality of personal existence and the modality of

74 Lecture the Second.

moral character. According to this view, the individual
who is re-born is therefore not, as the term soul mig-ht lead
one to suppose, the personal resultant of the sum total of
mental phenomena which made up the individual who died,
but the personification of the moral habits of the latter.
The personal connection between the individual who died
and the individual re-born is by no means viewed as a phy-
sical or psychic identity, but simply as a moral and per-
sonal relation of cause and effect, the same chain of causal
connection extending- backwards through innumerable aeons
in each case. In other words, each sentient being is the
product of its own moral worth, each living individual is
the fruit which in course of time has grown up from the
seed which that individual sowed by his moral or immoral
conduct in a previous form of existence.

Again, the Brahmans looked upon the stream of
transmigration as flowing on by its owm innate force, each
soul being driven on by its own tendency, gravitating
towards its original source, Brahma. Consequently trans-
migration was but a stream of that tendency which makes
for righteousness, a natural process, ruled by the laws of
nature. Buddha remodelled this doctrine into a moral
process guided by the will and ruled by the moral or im-
moral actions of each individual person. Man, he said, is
doomed to pilgrimage through the whole creation only as
far he himself will have it. He is the maker of his own
fate. Happiness and misery he in his own hands. As his
present condition has been determined by his previous
ap})earance in human existence, so will his future position

Bitdclldsin, a Theoretical System. 75

be dependent on his actions in this present life. Cruelty,
covetousness, falsehood, lust, drunkenness and other vices
will heap up a stock of demerit producing- re-birth in one
of the hells or at least in some wretched condition of life
upon earth, according- to the amount of demerit in store.
The practice of the opposite virtues will insure re-birth in
one of the heavens or ia some desirable condition upon
earth according to the store of accumulated merit. But
all such rewards or punishments, awarded durin^^ the pil-
grimage in the course of which each individual passes
through manifold repetitions of sentient existence, will
continue only for a limited period and by no means for
ever and ever. Transmigration therefore, and its bitterest
sting, hell with all its horrors of torture, is but a sort of
purgatory, a chastisement, not aimless punishment, is
but intended to purify, to wean man from his cleaving
to existence, to expiate the sinful guilty being, not to
extinguish it.

Another difference observable between the Brahmanic
and Buddhist conceptions of the doctrine of metempsy-
chosis is this, that Buddhism narrowed the circle of trans-
migration. Whilst according to the Upanishads the path
of transmigration passes even through inanimate nature,
through the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, Buddha
limited it to the sphere of animal organic life. No doubt,
he did so, because he looked upon transmigration altogether
as a moral process.

Of course this dogma of the soul's pilgrimage through
nature is a mighty weapon in the hands of an eloquent

76 Lecture the Second.

preacher. There is nothing- so very frightful to us des-
cendants of Western nations in the idea of transmigration.
There may be rather something* attractive in it for many.
For life is to us the highest blessing- and death we hate.
Many would therefore submit to a thousand deaths if they
were to live again a thousand times even at the expense of
the continuity of personal consciousness, and they would
not care much how their lives might be, for life is precious
to us in itself. But it is a different thing altogether with
the sons of hot climates, with the indolent native of
India, with the sedentary Chinaman. To him life itself
has no particular fascination. He counts death — if he
may rest after that—- a blessing. To suffer, to suffer even

the fiercest tortures of hell, to suffer even for millions of
years, is not half as frightful an idea to him as to be forced
to act, to labour, to work for seons, being subject to death,
indeed, but with no welcome rest after death, being con-
demned to die, only to be immediately reborn again, per-
haps as a hard-worked animal or an unclean cur. This is
the view which makes the hearts of Oriental nations
tremble with terror, and this is the weapon with which
eloquent Buddhist priests subdued the stubborn hearts of
Eastern Asia.

The clever founder of Buddhism, Shakyamnni himself,
knew this well, and therefore he made this dogma of the
soul's ti'ansmigration the very centre of his system, and
daily he preached it, and daily his fanatic followers spread
this doctrine farther and farther. They did not handle it,
however, as a tenet of speculative philosoph}', they did

Buddhism, a Theoretical System. 77

not treat it as a sort of esoteric mystery, only to be re-
vealed to the initiated, but, directly appealing to man's
moral conscience, they proffered this doctrine to all as
the only satisfactory explanation of the unequal distribu-
tion of rewards and punishments for good and evil in this
present world. Thus practically dealing with the doctrine
of metempsychosis, they passed over in silence all those
bootless metaphysical questions which Brahmanism had
been so busy with.

The consequence of these tactics was, that Buddhism
succeeded in bringing home this doctrine to every heart in
all Its practical bearings, so that at the present day every
class of people in Buddhist countries, educated and
uneducated, young and old, man and woman, among
half-civilized and among barbarous nomadical communities,
think and speak and act in perfect accordance with this
dogma. It is to them exactly what hell and damnation
is to Christian peoples.

Naturally therefore tlie question arises, what escape is
there from this dizzy round of birth and death, what
ultimate goal is there beyond the circle of transmigration ?
The answer is, there is indeed an escape. The means of it
lie in morality and meditation, and the haven of final
deliverance is Nirvana.

This answer, echoed with perfect unanimity by all
Buddhist Schools, though they differ from each other ns to
the relative merits of morality and meditation and as to the
nature of Nirvana, makes it necessary for a comi)lete sketch
of the Buddhist dogma to discuss tliese further points, the

7(5 Lecture the Second.

system of morality, speculative philosophy and the doctrine
of Nirvana. I will do so as briefly as possible.

,u^ THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF ETHICS.

§ 2G. — The Buddhist system of morality is based on
the example of Buddha's life. Imitate Buddha, conform
yourself as much as possible to this type of perfection : such
is the supreme precept of the Buddhist religion. Now Bud-
dha distinguished himself first of all during his 550 previous
births by self- forgetting, self-sacrificing charity. To get rid
of self, therefore, is the primary condition of a holy life.
He who is without desire, dead to himself, he alone
truly lives. This may be considered the elementary
principle of Buddhist morality.

But as Buddha in his last birth renounced not only his
own self, but the world and all worldly good and pleasure,
as he left society, retired into solitude, observed the
strictest chastity and temperance, Buddhist morality makes
correspondingly further demands upon the self-denial of its
adherents. The first five commandments of the Buddhist
religion run as follow : thou shalt not kill that which
has life, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit any
unchaste act, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not drink
any intoxicating liquor.

Here we have no doubt the form and extent of the
system of Buddhist morality as it was originally promulgat-
ed. We observe that the ruling idea of this code
of morality is the idea of absolute self-renunciation. Human
life appeared to Buddha to be full of misery because of its

Bibddhisiri, a Theoretical Sijstem. 79

being- full of selfish desire, whence he inferred, that the
path of deliverance lies in the entire renunciation of all
selfish desire, in the complete extirpation even of the
desire of existence itself.

Here lies the moral strength of Buddhism. It is a
religion of unselfishness. But here also lies the radical
defect of Buddhism. For this idea of utter self-abnegation
sprang- in Buddha but from a lively conviction of the
impermanency and unreality of the world of sense, not
from that aspiration after communing- with a being- of
perfectly unselfish g-oodness, which kindled the g-enius of
Plato and forms the deep root of Christian morality. Un-
consciously impressed by the g-randeur of the life of the
universe as something* boundless, permanent and absolute,
the founder of Buddhism had nothing- but contempt for the
individual personal life as something- narrow, transitory
and finite. He enjoined absolute unselfishness, not because
selfishness appeared to him mean and demeaning- in itself,
not because he recog;nized unselfishness as something- noble
and ennobling- in itself, but because all individuality, all
personal life was utterly worthless to his mind. He wished
men to sink in themselves, not that they might thereby
rise in God, but simply because he conceived existence to
be in itself an absolute evil and the source of all misery.

Buddhist morality has therefore an essentially negative
character. It is a moralitv without a God and without a
conscience. There appears in Buddhism an utter want of
an active principle of g-oodness. Buddhist morality does
not endeavour to produce in man a conviction of sin, it

so Lecture the Seeoficl.

does not appeal to his own inner sense of moral goodness.
Buddhism does not attempt to purify the affections, to
govern desire, to control passion, to renovate the heart, to
regenerate, to sanctify the whole being. Its virtue is
essentially negative. It enjoins men to cease from doing
evil, it demands the total extinction of all desire, of all
passion, but stops short of urging men to do good and
has no assistance to offer by way of strengthening the
conscience in its struggle with the powers of evil.

This very absence of an active principle of goodness,
the denial of God and the disregard of the human
conscience, gave to Buddhist morality that pessimist
character, that spirit of melancholy despair which it brea-
thes. When Shakyarauni became a Buddha through re-
cognising that everything earthly is impermanent and
unreal, that human existence is necessarily and insepar-
ably wedded to miser}'^, be was simply in a state of moral
and intellectual despair, lie threw overboard all faith in
God and moral consciousness j he abandoned all hope for
the actual world which appeared to him radically and
irremediably badj he saw no way of escape but that of
the extinction of existence itself. The greatest happiness,
he said, is not to be born, the next greatest is for those
who have been born to die soon.

It was however but a consistent development of
Buddha's own ethical principles when his followers, feeling
the want of a positive code of morality, constructed a moral
system, the chief characteristics of which are comprehended
in a formula that was ever after the rudimentary confession

BLuldldsni, a Theoretical System. 81

of faith of all Buddhist neophytes, the so-called formula of
refuge : I take my refug-e in Buddha, i.e. I will imitata
him and all his doings; I take my refuge in Dharma, i.e. I
accept all his ideas of the impermanency of all earthly
things and the necessity of absolute self-renunciation ;
I take my refuge in Samgha, i.e. I renounce society,
property, matrimonial and family life and see no salvation
outside the pale of the Church.

In short, the pessimism of Buddhist morality drove
its adherents to seek refuge in ecclesiastical asceticism
and to construct a code of monasticism which condescen-
dingly allowed or rather connived at the existence of lay-
brethren and lay- sisters, but which held out hope of salva-
tion to none but those who renounced the world and
entered the Church as mendicant priests and nuns.

This system produced the most elaborate rules for the
guidance of the priesthood, regulating their dress, their
diet, their occupation, and prescribing the very manner of
standing up and sitting down with the most pains-taking
and pedantic minuteness. It enjoined public confession of
faults, which led to a complete code-book of casuistry.
It produced a code of criminal law for the maintenance of
discipline. It developed ecclesiastical rank, grades of
saintship, an elaborate ritual, a complete religious calendar
and so forth.

Now this system of morality viewed as a whole

was not without its good effects. It was admirably adapted

-to the preservation of religious and moral life in times

of immoralitv and political anarcliv, and cspeciallv to

82 Lecture the Second.

the primary work of taming savage tribes whom it weaned
from habits of cruelty, blood-thirstiness and bestiality,
whose intemperate habits were successfully checked by
enjoining complete abstinence, and who were taught to
obey the law and to submit to the rules of morality,
and thus prepared for civilisation.

Again, this system of monasticism, which offered
a welcome to people of all classes and all nations, formed
an excellent substitute for the narrow-minded exclusiveness
of caste in India. In countries where Buddhism failed to
extirpate caste, as for instance in Ceylon, this monastic and
ecclesiastical system modified the pretensions of caste
and counterbalanced its evils. In other countries, where
warfare, despotism and feudal systems lacerated the peace
of Asiatic peoples, producing even greater evils than
caste in India ever did, there this Buddhist system of
monasticism came in most suitably, teaching the equality
of all nations and establishing a common brotherhood,
a grand international league of morality, fraternity and
abstinence.

On the other hand, every system of monasticism is
productive of evil tendencies and serves to cramp the
intellect. The self-abnegation originally involved in giving
up a worldly life is soon for consistency's sake supplemented
by a life of selfish seclusion. Monasticism is also
detrimental to a healthy development of the intellectual
faculties, as history and experience abundantly prove.

In the case of Buddhism I need only point to the fact,
that it produced no literature worthy to be compared

Buddhism, a Theoretical System. 63

with eveu that of China, let alone that of European
nations; that it never encouraged art or science; that
it failed to comprehend the importance of any of the
problems of political and social life, and that Buddhist
priests are now-a-days generally noted for their ignorance
and indolence. Moreover this grand system of Buddhist
monachism inherited the inevitable tendency of every
system of minutely regulated observances, to degenerate
into an external formalism. When the first burst of
enthusiasm has passed, the religion that overleaps all
earthly piety soon collapses into a religion of forms, into
a system of Phariseeism equally irrational and immoral.
This has actually happened in the case of Buddhism.

But the best test for the value of any system of
morality is the position it assigns to woman. Here
Buddhist morality is found signally wanting. The system
of Buddhism leaves woman where it found her two thousand
years ago. Instead of educating and elevating her, instead
of breaking those chains of slavery in which women were
held all over Asia, instead of giving woman a position
in society worthy of her innate purity, Buddhism grudgingly
allowed women a place in the hierarchy as nuns, but with
the distinct understanding that there was no hope of
salvation for them unless through being reborn as men.

This idea of re-birth brings us to the last and most
important defect of Buddhist morality. The idea of
transmigration pervades the whole system of Buddhist
ethics like a deadly poison. For the theory of a man's
destiny, being entirely determined by the stock of merits and

SJi- Lecture the Second.

demerits accumulated in previous forms of existence,
constitutes Buddhism a S3''stem of fatalism ; whilst the idea
of improving" one's future prospect bj works of super-
erog-ation, converts morality into a vast scheme of profit
and loss.

Hence the Chinese Buddhist actually keeps a debtor
and creditor account with himself of the acts of each day,
and at the end of the year he closes his current account
and makes out a balance-sheet. If the balance is in his
favour, it is carried on to the account of the next year,
but if the balance is against him, something" extra must
be done in the way of donations to the Church, or by means
of deeds of charity or penance, to make up for the
deficit.

Thus it happens, that this g-rand moral system of
Buddhism, starting with the idea of the entire renunciation
of self, ends in that downrig-ht selfishness, which abhors
crime not because of its sinfulness, but because it is a
personal injurj^ which sees no moral pollution in sin,
but merely a ctilamity to be deprecated, or a misfortune to
])e shunned.

aIj^ Cbuddhist philosophy.

§ 27. — Morality however is not considered in itself
sufficient to break through the circle of transmigration, to
carry men across the ocean of misery, to save them from
the evils of existence. The object of morality is to
practically extinguish the passions, to root out desire.
But the deepest root, the first cause of desire, lies io
theoretical ignoiance, misconception, delusion.

Buddhism, a Theoretical System. 85

To eradicate this delusion, therefore, to remove this
ignorance and misconception regarding- the outer and inner
world, would be the final means of deliverance, would
rid the self of all the trammels of existence, would actuallv
lift the individual practically and theoretically out of
the circle of transmigration and land him on the shores
of Nirvana. In one word, whilst morality practically
extinguishes the desire of existence, abstract meditation or
speculative philosophy extinguishes existence itself.

Morality and philosophy are therefore indispensable to
each other, whatever their relative importance may be.
As Christianity requires both, good works and faith, thus
also Buddhism bases the idea of salvation on a combination
of the two factors, moral action and abstract thought or
intelligence.

As Buddhist morality req'iires men to imitate the
doings of Buddha, thus also Buddhist philosophy invites
men to conform to and to follow up the very idea of
Buddha, for the word Buddha means literally one who
knows, i.e. one who knows the unreality of all phenomena,
which knowledge is looked upon as the result of abstract
meditation. The way in which Buddha departed from this
world, by the mental process of inwardly realising the total
impermanency and nothingness of all earthly forms of
existence, of overcoming not only the desire of existence,
but destroying existence itself by a purely intellectual
logical process, — this is the object of Buddhist philosophy,
this is the final path to Nirvana.

Unfortunately liowever Buddha's followers differed

86 Lecture the Second,

from each other in no other detail of doctrine so much as in
the manner in which thej built up their systems of
philosophy. They seemed to take a delight in contradict-
ing each other, and the consequence was, that Buddhism
split into a great number of different philosophical Schools,
each starting from the same circle of ideas, as given above,
and each coming to pretty nearly the same result, to the
idea of Nirvana. Buddhism developed nominalistic and
realistic Schools, divided itself into Schools of Idealism and
Materialism, produced systems of Positivism and Nihilism.
And there is very little they have in common with each
other beyond the following propositions, which form the
fundamental ideas of the philosophic systems of all shades
and all ages in the sphere of Buddhist orthodoxy.

All start from the so-called four truths (Aryanisa-
tyani) or the idea that misery is a necessary attribute
of sentient existence, that the accumulation of misery is
caused by desire, that the extinction of desire is possible
and that there is a path that leads to that extinction.
Another leading proposition, common to all Schools, is this,
that individual existence (personality) is made up by the
following five constituents (Skandhas), the organized body,
sensation, perception, discrimination and consciousness.

Again, there is tolerable unanimity as to a certain
concatenation of cause and effect, which is considered to
form the real explanation of the riddle of existence. There
are twelve Huks (Nidanas) in this endless chain of
cause and effect. Existence, it is said, is caused by (1)
ignorance or delusion ; ignorance produced ('3) action ;

Bitddhisni, a Theoretical System. 87

from action arises (3) consciousness, thence (4) substan-
tiality, thence (5) the six org^ans of perception (eye, ear,
nose, tong-ue, body and mind) ; from the action of these
organs arises (6) sensation, thence comes (7) perception ;
thence (8) desire or hist ; from this desire spring-s (9) the
cleaving" to existence, which produces (10) individual
existence; the latter finds its expression in (11) birth, but
birth invariably produces (12) decrepitude and death, and
death, thoug-h it breaks up the above-mentioned five con-
stituents (Skandhas) of individual life, leaves behind the
reproductive power, a germ as it were, which has to run
the same round again through ignorance, action, consci-
ousness and so forth.

Here we have then again, in philosophy also, the same
circle, which we observed before in the system of the phy-
sical universe and — in the form of transmigration — in the
moral order of the world.

We see, therefore, how fitly Buddhism at the very out-
set adopted the emblem of a wheel in order to typify the
leading characteristics of its faith. What the cross is to
the Christian Church, emblematically pointing to the cen-
tral truth of theoretical and practical Christianity, the same
as regards fulness of significance is to the Buddhist his
Dharma Tchakra, the so-called wheel of doctrine. As the
Christian speaks of preaching the cross, so the Buddhist
speaks of burning the wheel of doctrine.' For the idea of
ceaseless rotation running through the whole system,
branch and root, hss made of Buddhism altogether a sys-
tem of wheels within wheels. Ecce shjnnm.

SS Lecture the Second.

NIRVANA.

h 28. — I have been turning' this wheel before the eyes
of my readers, and it is time now to stop it by way of
pointing- out what the final escape from this weary dizzy
round is, which Buddhism offers by means of mental
abstraction. What is Nirvana ?

There has been much dispute in the learned world
among Buddhists and among' European scholars, whether
Nirvana means absolute annihilation or not. I would hum-
bly sug'g-est, that if the learned writers on the subject,
instead of presuming Buddhism to have been one and the
same thing everywhere, and in all ages, instead of over-
looking that Buddhism is one thing as a scientific system
and another as a popular practical religion, had taken into
consideration that there are as many different Buddhist
denominations, schools and parties, as there are Christian
sects, it would have saved much useless disputation.

The doctrine of Nirvana, like all other Buddhist doc-
trines, has been differently handled in different ages, by
different schools, writers and preachers. 1 have given
much thought to the subject, and the conclusions I arrive
at are these.

In the absence of ancient manuscripts and by reason
of the repeated textual alterations which the Buddhist
canon suffered before it was fixed in the form in which we
now have it, it is practically impossible to determine what
{Shiikyamuni Buddha himself taught on the subject. He

BiultUus7ii, a Theoretical System. 89

may have looked upon Nirvana as a state of personal im-
mortality, in which the spirit, exempt from the eddies of
transmigration, revels in the enjoyment of unlimited happi-
ness arising from the annihilation of all desire. On the
other hand, he may have viewed Nirvana as a state of
absolute annihilation of personality and individual existence.
It is impossible to decide which of the two views Buddha
actually held. But I am inclined to think he most proba-
bly left the question undecided in his own mind.

After Buddha's death, his followers may likewise have ^
left the problem untouched for some time. But the most
ancient Sutras which we possess coincide with the popular
literature of modern Buddhism, in describing Nirvana as a
state of exemption from birth and death, as a condition of
peace and felicity, implying- not only the continuation of
individuality, of consciousness and personality, but an
active interest in the progress of religion on earth, which
occasional!}'' prompts individuals, after having entered Nir-
vana, to re-appear on earth in order to interfere on behalf
of the faithful.

On the other hand, both ancient and modern philoso-
phical Schools of Buddhism have always had a leaning to
and in most instances have actually defined Nirvana as a
state of absolute annihilation, where there is neither
consciousness nor personality, nor existence of any kind.
And I do believe that a consistent development of the
principles of Buddhism must always lead to the same
negative result, that existence is but a curse and that
therefore the aim of human cftVirt should be the total

^

Z^"

90 Lecture the Second.

annihilation of the personality and existence of each indi-
vidual soul.

Modern philosophical Schools of Buddhism are all more
or less influenced by a spirit of sophistic nihilism. They
deal with Nirvana as they deal with every other dogma,
with heaven and hell : they deny its objective reality,
placing it altogether in the abstract. They dissolve every
proposition into a thesis and its an ti- thesis and deny both.
Thus they say Nirvana is not annihilation, but they also
deny its positive objective reality. According to them the
soul enjoys in Nirvana neither existence nor non-existence,
it is neither eternal nor non-eternal, neither annihilated
nor non-annihilated. Nirvana is to them a state of which
nothing can be said, to which no attributes can be given ;
it is altogether an abstract, devoid alike of all positive and
all negative qualities.

VALUE OF BUDDHISM AS A THEORETICAL
it-^y SYSTEM.

§ 29. — What shall we say of such empty useless specu-
lations, such sickly, dead words, whose fruitless sophistry
offers to that natural yearning of the human heart after an
eternal rest nothing better than — a philosophical myth?

It is but natural that a religion which started with
moral and intellectual bankruptcy should end in moral and
intellectual suicide. But sad, pitiably sad it is to see a
religion that contains so many true ideas to produce results
so barren, so deadly.

Bunsen was rijiLt in his estimate of the v^Iue of

Buddhism, a TJieoretical System. 91

this purposeless religion. Buddhism, he said, may be
regarded as a sort of repose of* humanity after its deli-
verance from the heavy yoke of Brahmanism and the wild
orgies of nature worship. But this repose is that of a
weary wanderer, who is withheld from the prosecution of
God's work on this earth by his utter despair of the triumph
of justice and truth in actual life. In the plan of the
world's order it seems even now to be producing the effect
of a mild dose of opium on the raving or despairing tribes
of weary-hearted Asia.

The sleep lasts long, but it is a gentle one, and who
knows how near may be the dawn of tUe resurrection
morning ?

9^ Lecture the Third.

LECTURE THE THIRD.

BUDI>HISM, A POPULAR RELIGION.

THE TRUTHS OF BUDDHISM,

§ 30. — In the preceding- lecture I exhibited Buddhism;
from a doctrinal point of view. I endeavoured to do so
with due impartiality, taking for my basis the more ancient
scriptures of the Buddhists and confining my remarks to-
those features of doctrine, which are the common property
of all the various Buddhist Schools. The question now
suggests itself, whether there is any truth at all in Bud-
dhism as a system- of doctrine t

No doubt Buddhism has brought to light many valu-
able and true ideas, and, being free from any trammels of
Bationality, it was peculiarly adapted to impress these truths
upon all the peoples of Eastern Asia, among whom it
obtained a footing. I have shown with what broad and
enlarged views the Buddhists expounded that mysteriou&
book of revelation. Nature, anticipating, centuries before-
Ptolemy, the latter's sy&tem of cycle and epicycle, orb
in orb.

Buddhisin, a Popular Religion. 93

Though no Buddhist ever attained to the clearer
insight and mathematical analysis of a Copernicus, Newton ,
Laplace or Herschel, it must be acknowledged that Bud-
dhism fore-stalled in several instances the most splendid
discoveries of modern astronomy. Teaching' the origin
of each world to have taken place out of a cloud, the
Buddhists anticipated two thousand years ago flerschel's
nebular h3^pothesis. And when those very patches of
cloudy light or diffused nebulosities, which Herschel
supposed to be diffused matter hastening- to a world birth,
dissolved themselves before the monster telescope of Lord
Rosse into as many assemblages of suns, into thousands
of other world-systems dispersed through the wilds of
boundless space, modern astronomy was but verifjing the
more ancient Buddhist dogma of a plurality of worlds,
of the co-existence of innumerable chiliocosmoi inhabited
by multitudes of living beings.

Again, the Buddhist idea of each world being subject
to destruction by fire, in order to be re-constructed again
in a similar form, cannot be repugnant to modern as-
tronomers, who witnessed the disappearance of stars through
blazing conflagrations and who once believed in the ex-
istence of a resisting medium in space, which, retarding
every year the movement of every planet and every sun,
finally results in the dissolution of our globe, to give
way — as Buddhism teaches us — to a new heaven and a new
earth.

Even some of the results of modern geology may be
said to have been intuitively divined by Buddhism. For

94 Lecture the TJiird,

the Buddhists knew the interior of our earth to be in an
incandescent state, they spoke of the formation of each
earth as havinf^ occupied successive periods of incalculable
duration, they strongly intimated that we are walking
on the catacombs of dead generations, that we subsist on a
world resting on tiers of worlds, piled up in successive
strata through the continental function of an illimitable
ocean.

Another spark of divine light which the Buddhists
possessed is discernible in their recognizing and constantly
teaching the most intimate connection between the visible
and invisible worlds. They knew that things seen are
not the only realities. They looked upon the planets
as inhabited by multitudes, all eagerly listening to
Buddha's preaching. They peopled the air with spirits,
the firmament with legions of human beings, superior
to ourselves in purity and happiness, but constantly inter-
communicating with us pigmies. They saw heaven open
to each aspiring soul and mansions prepared there for those
of a pure and tranquil heart. They understood that an
immense crowd of spectators is watching us unseen with
intense interest, a crowd of devils grinning with delight at
the progress of evil, and hosts of angelic beings rejoicing
over the spread of truth on earth.

The Buddhist system of morality also possesses, in
spite of the many defects which I pointed out in the
preceding lecture, many praiseworthy features. It started
with the recognition of sin and evil as the heir-loom of
mortal man. It pointed out in the strongest terms the

Baddhism, a Popular Religion. 9t

impernianency and hollowness of everything* earthly. It
exhorted its devotees to extend love and charity to man and
beast. It marked selfishness, lust and passion as the chief
enemies of human happiness. It pointed out the superiority
of the inward life over outward existence. It taught its
adherents to look away from earthly sensual objects to
regions invisible and inspired them — at least to a certain
extent — with hopes of immortality.

DEFECTS OF BUDDHISM,

S 31. — On the other hand Buddhism is disfigured by
some most important radical defects, which will in the
estimation of an impartial critic far outweigh all the above
mentioned points of advantage, and which in fact neutralize
most of its beneficial elements. Whether we look upon
Buddhism as a system of religion, morality or philosophy,
we cannot help observing everywhere fundamental errors
directly antagonistic to a healthy development of either the
intellectual or moral faculties of mankind. But instead of
repeating here all the detailed fallacies with which the
Buddhist dogma is saturated and which I pointed out
en passant in the preceding two lectures, it will suffice
to give prominence to the most striking features, which
mar the otherwise undeniable beauty of this grand system
of natural religion.

Buddhism is intellectually defective. It arose from a
feeling of spiritual bankruptcy and never after recovered
its mental equilibrium. It is therefore essentially a re-
ligion of sullen despair, based on the total obliteration

06 Lecture the Third.

of a healthy faith in the actual constitution of thing's,
penetrated by a spirit of morose abandon, mental and
moral, and resulting in a barren sophistic nihilism which
fails to recog-nize in nature, in history, in human affairs the
will of God, and never thought of interpreting that will by
the dictates of human conscience. Buddhism is in fact
a system of religion without hope and strictly speaking
even without God, a system of morality without a con-
science, a system of philosophy which wears either the
mask of transcendental mysticism or of nihilistic cynicism.

Again, Buddhism is further intellectually weak, be-
cause of its prodigious fondess for the miraculous, because
it comes into collision with the results of experimental
investigation and especially also because it gives such
undue preference to the transcendental and the future, that
it is utterly incapable of comprehending or appreciating
the claims of reality and the demands of the present.

Morally also Buddhism is found sadly wanting.
Though professing to destroy self, its system of morality
is pervaded by a spirit of calculating selfishness, its social
virtues are essentially negative and strikingly unfruitful in
good works.

POPULAR ASPECTS OF BUDDHISM.

§ 32. — Am I overstating my case and shooting beyond
the mark ? Is it that I prove too much and thus expose
myself to the charge of having proved too little ? Should
not common sense tell me, that a religion so defective, so
unnatural, so worthless, could not possibly have attained
such wide-spread acceptation,- could not have become the

Biuldhisni, a Popular Religion. 97

avowed creed of several hundred millions of reasoning
creatures ?

Certainly, if I bad asserted that Buddhism remained
anywhere or for any length of time a mere system of
doctrine and consistently developed itself in practical life,
as it was developed by thinking minds in the solitude of
the cloister or in the study of the philosopher, I would have
to demur to these charges. But the fact is, I have con-
stantly kept in mind that Buddhism is one thing as
a dogmatic theoretic system and another thing as a
living practical religion, that Buddhism developed itself
in one form when cast into the crucible of logical thought
and was moulded into another shape under the sober
practical influences of daily life, in the struggle for
existence.

Whilst the Buddhist philosopher or moralist in his
study, in his pulpit, in his writings, correctly unfolded
Buddhism as a system of cold Atheism and barren Nihilism,
the common people in all Buddhist countries instinctively
drifted into a form of worship essentially polytheistic and
rose in some instances even to avowed Monotheism.
Whilst the Buddhist philosophic canon (Abidharma) de-
scribes Nirvana, the highest good of mankind, as a state of
utter annihilation, the religious instincts of the people sub-
stituted for it hopes of more tangible positive beatitude.
Whilst Buddhism as a system of doctrine leaves no room
for the idea of atonement, the practical religious conscience
asserted its divine rights and engrafted upon the cere-
monial of the Church a service of prayer and sacrifice

08 Led lire the Third.

specially intended to expiate the guilty conscience and to
remove the consequences of sin and the sting of death
and hell.

These are hut instances, sufficient however to show
that Goethe's famous saying,

* Ein guter Mensch in seinem dunkeln Drange
1st sich des recliten Weges wohl bewusst,'

SO true and yet so simple, that it refuses to be translated, is
as true in Asia as anywhere else. In other words, the
history of Buddhism proves, if proof were wanted, that
every human being has in his moral instincts, unless he
deliberately pervert them, a sure guide in the search for
moral and religious truth.

We must allow therefore that, unnatural and monstrous
as Buddhism appears when viewed merely as a dogmatic
system, many of its abnormities have been toned down,
amended or rectified in the arena of practical life, under the
influence of the religious conscience and common sense.
It would be unjust then if I were to stop with the
exposition of Buddhism on the basis of its canonical
literature. It will be but fair to the reputation of
Buddhism and necessary to the completion of tLis sketch of
its religion, if I proceed to consider Buddhism as a practi-
cal religion, drawing my information from actual observation
of modern Buddhist worship as well as from the popular
literature which circulates among the middle and lower
classes of Buddhist countries.

But to avoid useless repetitionSj I shall confine myself
lo those forms of religious belief and practices prevalent

Buddhisin, a Popular lleligion. 99

amono- modern Buddhists which deviate from the theo-
retical system of their own Church.

It is a remnant of primitive Asiatic tree-worship,
that almost every religious sect of Asia has to this
present day a sacred tree of its own. The Brahmans
revered the Ficus Indica, for which Buddhism ori-
ginally substituted the Ficus Religiosa. But in course
of time the Buddhists either reverted to the former tree
or confounded the two. They were probably led to do
so by the intuitive apprehension that Buddhism, as it
grew and spread, singularly followed the mode of growth
which is a distinctive mark of the sacred tree of the
Brahmans, the Ficus Indica. It is a peculiarity of the
latter that it extends itself by letting its branches droop
and take root, planting nurseries of its own and so
multiplying itself by that means, that a single tree forms a
curiously arched grove.

This is precisely the way in which Buddhism
propagated itself. It germinated in India, but sent ouli
branches South and North, each taking root, and each
perpetuating itself by further off-shoots, whilst the parent
stock was gradually withering and finally decayed.
Buddhism left but few traces behind in India, but it still
lives in Ceylon and in the off-shoots of the Singhalese
Church in Burmah, Siani and Pegu. When Buddhism
became almost totally extinct in India, the whole force
of its vitality seemed to throw itself northwards and it
spread with renewed vigour and widening shade over
Cashmere and Nopaul to China and Tibet. Chinese

100 Lecture tlie Third.

Buddhism threw forth new branches, northwards into
Corea and Japan, and southwards over Cochin-China,
Cambodia and Lagos, whilst Tibetan Buddhism pushed its
branches into Mongolia^ Manchuria and the greater part of
Central Asia.

Now in each of these countries Buddhism established
separate Churches, each having its own locally diversified
life, its own saplings, its own fruits and yet all these many
branches with their endless ramifications form one grove,
one compact whole, pervaded by the same sap, connected
■with each other and with the old withered parent stock in
India by a net of intertwining roots.

It is quite beyond the limits of this lecture to go intO'
all these national peculiarities and local varieties of
Buddhism, interesting as the}' are to the student of com-
parative anthropology. I must confine myself to the more
prominent general characteristics. And here we observe
one grand distinction standing out in bold relief, a
distinction which is now generally recognized by Buddhist
scholars when they speak of Southern and Northern
Buddhism.

SOUTHERN BUDDHISM AS A POPULAR

RELIGION.

§ 33. — Southern Buddhism, or the Church of Ceylon
with her off'spring, being locally in close proximity to the
parent stock and by natural circumstances in a comparatively
isolated position, retained the strongest resemblance to the
original Buddhism of India, and seemed sympathetically a&

Buddhism, a Popular Meli^lon. 101

it were to suffer under every blow struck at its parent
stock. At first indeed Singhalese Buddhism displayed a
vigorous healthy life : it spread to Burmah and Siam, and
sent forth fresh shoots towards Sumatra, Java and Borneo.
But the latter were nipped in the bud by the inroad of
Mohammedanism which almost completely isolated the mo-
ther Church in Ceylon and paralyzed her efforts. When
Buddhism in India also received its death-blow, the Sing-
halese Church was still more affected by it. Its vigour and
growth remained stunted ever after.

The consequence was that the Buddhist dogma was
left in Ceylon, Burmah and Siam in atatu quo up to the
present day. There was too little life remaining for inde-
pendent dogmatic and ecclesiastical development. There
was little temptation from without to engraft foreign ideas
and superstitions upon the traditional stock of doctrines
and institutions. Shivaism and Shamanism, which satu-
rated and leavened the Buddhist Churches of the North to
a very considerable extent, never influenced the minds of
Southern Buddhists. 'I'hey clung to the old traditions,
retained the ancient dogma, preserved their primitive
monastic and ecclesiaticai forms in languid torpor, but with
tolerable fidelity.

Still even here, in getting poj)ularized. Buddhism could
not avoid altogether the modifying influences of the reli-
gious and moral instincts of the common people. What I
said in the preceding lecture about Buddhism in general,
substantially coincides with the theoretical teaching of
modern Buddhists in Ceylon. But the common people

102 Lecture the Third.

there have instinctively toned dovim many of the unnatural
products of Buddhist scholasticism.

Cold, lifeless, abstract Atheism was too repulsive to the
warm religious instincts and affections of the people who
instinctively substituted for it idolatrous deification of hu-
manity. They worship the seven ancient Buddhas, and
Shakyamuni Gautama in particular, they accord divine
honours to his principal disciples or Bodhisattvas, they
prostrate themselves before the images of these worthies,
bring them ofFering-s, address them in prayer, and revere their
relics with superstitious awe. But they do all this without
making any logical distinction between the image and the
heroe represented by it, without realising to themselves
when they worship in the temples whether it is the mere
act of worshipping that will avert calamity or procure hap-
piness for them, or whether the invisible Buddha or Bod-
hisattva actually has the power to influence their fortunes.

The educated Buddhist will always deny being guilty
of idolatry. He merely remembers those ancient spiritual
lieroes by means of statuary representations, he merely vows
in the presence of those idols to follow their example and
practise morality and holiness. But the common people
incapable of drawing such fine distinctions mechanically
worship those heroes of their Church, hoping thereby to
derive temporal and eternal advantages. Theirs is there-
fore not an atheistic religion but a worship of the genius,
a deification of humanity. Aud this is what Buddhism
amounts to everywhere in the minds of the common people.
As the consciousness of God, this divine If'gacy in-

Biuldhisui, a Fajjular Religion. 10^

'^

herited by every human soul, recoiled from the g-odless
Atheism of the metaphysician, thus also the sound common
sense of the untutored multitude asserted itself in opposi-
tion to the refined teachings of the Schools ref^ardinjj* the
future state (Nirvana). The literature of Southern Bud-
dhism renounces the very idea of individuality, denies the
existence of a separate eg'o, a self, and consistently there-
fore sees the highest boon of mankind in total annihilation
of all forms of existence. Nirvana is to this over-wise
school-philosophy neither a state of consciousness nor un-
consciousness, nor is it a state that is neither conscious nor
unconscious : it is simply a non-entity, and the being- that
enters this state must become non-existent. This is what
the Buddhist priest teaches to the present day ; this is the
food he offers to human souls hung-ering* and thirsting for a
future of personal happiness and bliss. Surely it is g'iving* a
stone to children crying- for bread. And though it be the
philosopher's stone, it is not to be wondered at if the
common people turn away from it unsatisfied.

The fact is, this annihilation theory has nowhere in
any Buddhist country met with popular acceptation.
Though Southern Buddhists did not proceed to substitute
any definite conceptions of a real paradise of personal con-
scious immortality for this abstract metaphysical Nihilism,
they comforted themselves with the idea, that — whatever
Nirvana might actually be — there would be there no more
of the horrors of transmigration, no more of the misery of
life and death, no more of the torments of hell. Thus the
common people accustomed themselves to think and speak

104- Lecture the Thirds

of Nirvana neg-atively. Thej understand it to be final ces-
sation of the weary round of birth and death, a state abso-
lutely exempt from all sorrows and troubles.

With the exception of these two points, Atheism and
Nihilism, the practical religion of Southern Buddhists has
adopted the whole range of Buddhist dogmas as exhibited
in the preceding lecture. If we are to apply the historical
distinction of Ilinayana and Mahayana, we might therefore
consider Singhalese Buddhists to be followers of the Hina-
yana system. When a learned Chinese Buddhist (Hiuen-
tsang), who visited Ceylon in A.D. 640-645, classed the
Buddhists of Ceylon among the adherents of the Mahayana
School, he had most probably before his mind those very
points, the negation of Atheism and Nihilism, in which the
practical religion of Southern Buddhists, following the
natural bent of the religious instincts and common sense,
assimilated itself, though unintentionally and independen-
tly, with their Northern contemporaries, among whom the
Mahayana School was then flourishing.

There are indeed a few other points of resemblance, in-
stances of expansion given to original Buddhism by Bud-
dhists of the North, types of which might be noticed in the
popular Buddhism of Ceylon. If, for example, the common
people of Ceylon — perhaps more or less unconsciously —
bring an offering to Buddhas and saints as if it were an
atoning sacrifice, this might be looked upon as an expan-
sion of the original Buddhism of India which indeed leaves
no room for any atonement whatsoever, and as the germ
from which the more elaborate ritual of propitiation and

Baddhisni, a Popidar EeUgiori. 105

atonement now common among Northern Buddhists sprang-.
Minute investigation would also discover among- modern
Singhalese Buddhists slight traces of the Mysticism of the
North.

These are, however, but minor points of resemblance,
originating most likely not in any historical connection
with the Mahayana School of the North, but in the
constitution and natural bent of the religious mind which
is the same all the world over. The principal ruling ideas
in the practical religion of Singhalese Buddhism are not
those of the Mahayana School.

Taking all in all, therefore, I believe I am justified in
saying that the Buddhism of Ceylon, even considered as a
practical religion, has preserved more of the characteristics
of primitive Buddhism than any other branch of the same
Church, and is on the whole a tolerably faithful exponent
of that phase in the development of the Buddhist religion
which is known under the name of the llinayana system.

NORTHERN BUDDHISM AS A POPULAR

RELIGION,

§ 34. — The same might be said with some limitation of
the Buddhist Churches of Burmah and Siam, which are
closely allied to the mother Church of Ceylon and
essentially belong to the same Hinayana system, though
they have used still more liberty in popularizing the
traditional creed than the Singhalese ever ventured to do.
Burmese and Siamese Buddhists were besides more than
Singhalese Buddhists under the influence of Brahmanism

106 Lecture the TJdrd.

and went even so far as to amalg^amate with the Buddhist
religion notions derived from the primitive tree and serpent
worship, which was a form of religion not only prior to
Buddhism but indigenous in Burmah and Siam. The con-
sequence is, that practical Buddhist worship there is marked
by the prevalence of Brahmanic mythology.

As in Ceylon, so here also the scholastic system
of nihilistic Atheism has been converted into a popular form
of Polytheism, a worship of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
Nagas and demons. There are moreover in Burmah and
Siam many traces of the peculiar teachings and rites of the
Mahayana and even of the Tantra School, so that the
popular Buddhism of these two countries may be considered
to be the connecting link between the Buddhism of the
South (Ceylon) and the Buddhists of the North (China,
Tibet, &c.).

The religious systems of Northern Buddhism, as
carried out in practical life by the Buddhists of Cashmere,
Nepaul, and all countries North and North-East of the
Himalaya, will strike any observer at first sight as a most
heterogeneous mixture of foreign, especially Indian, and
native elements, embodying the mythological deities of
almost any religion that ever existed in Eastern Asia.

OBJECTS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.

§ 35. — Let us in imagination visit a Buddhist temple
connected with a monastery, say the largest that is to be
found in any of the above named regions, but which is only
a magnified specimen of what you may find en miniatnre

Biidclhisnit a Popular Religion, 107

or in detached portions in every city within the sphere
of Northern Buddhism. Let us also suppose that we have
for our guide an intelligent and well-read Buddhist priest,
a rara avis indeed, but still, let us charitably hope, to
be found somewhere, one that is able to explain the
mythological origin and meaning of all the objects of
worship.

Start with him on your expedition, and he will point
out to you a large tree marking from afar, as you approach,
the locality of the sacred edifice, the gables of which
are likewise remarkable from a distance by their peculiar
shape and the dragon figures which surmount them.
When your eye catches the splendid tree in front of the
building, your guide will tell you that this tree is a
specimen of the sacred Bodhi-tree (Ficus Religiosa), that an
embassy expressly sent for this purpose to Buddha-gaya in
India brought a shoot from the veritable tree under which
Shakyamuni sat when he attained to BuddLaship. You
may remark that the tree before you is by no means a
Ficus Religiosa, but a Ficus ludica, or it may happen that it
is neither of the two, but a palm-tree (most probably then
the Borassus Flabellifbrmis) j but the priest will tell j^ou
nevertheless with a bland smile that it is at any rate a
Bodhi-tree and that only ignorant and wantonly sceptical
people can have any doubt on the subject. Is tliere not a
plate erected at the foot of the tree, stating that this tree
grew out of a shoot brought directly from the holy land,
cut off the very Bodhi-tree at Gaya?

As you turn towards the principal entrance of the

108 Lecture the Third.

building-, you remark, a yard or two in advance of the
flig'ht of steps leading- up to it, figures of crouching lions
carved in stone and resting on pedestals, placed on either
side. Yon will be told that these are emblems of
Shakyamuni whose cognomen Shakyasimha (lit. Shakya,
the lion) indicates that he is by his moral excellence the
king of men, as the lion by his strength is the king of the
beasts. Perhaps your guide will even quote a passage
from his sacred scriptures, '■ as a lion's howl makes all
animals tremble, subdues elephants, arrests birds in their
flight and fish in the water, thus Buddha's utterances upset
all other religions, subdue all devils, conquer all heretics
and arrest all the misery of life.'

If it is a sunny day, j'ou will find gathered on the
entrance steps a motley assembly ; priests and beggars,
lying' lazily in the sun, or engaged in entomological
pursuits, mending' their clothes, cobbling their shoes,
cleaning their opium pipes, smoking, gambling and so
forth, and your appearance will be the signal for a general
clamour for an alms oflfering in the shape of a foreign cent,
or they will oifer their services as guides. But if it should
happen to be a feast day, the steps and the whole open
space in front, with the courtyards inside, will be crowded
to excess by a busy multitude, men, women and children,
who have come to worship or to consult the oracle, hawkers
of fruit and other edibles, booths with fancy articles of all
kinds^ stalls opened by druggists, wandering doctors,
fortune tellers, tents for the purpose of g^ambling, in short a
complete fair vvliieh pushes its luni-ber and its clamour close

Buddhism, a Popular Religion. 109

to the very altars of the divinities worshipped inside the
central temple.

As you enter the front-door, a martial figure with
defying mien, armed to the teeth and sword in hand,
confronts you. It is the image of Veda, the patron and
])rotector of monasteries. Inside the door there are to the
right and left niches for the spirits of the door-way who are
supposed to keep out all evil influences, and for the INaga
(dragon) spirits who are looked upon as the tutelary
deities of the ground on which the sacred huildings are
erected.

Having passed the first courtyard, you are led through
a second gateway, when your eye is arrested by four gigan-
tic images, two being placed on either side of the gateway,
guarding as it were with fiaming eyes the entrance to the
sanctuary beyond. Your guide will inform you that they
are the demon-kings of the four regions (Tchatur Maharad-
jas) who guard the world against the attack of evil spirits
(Asuras), that each of them is posted on a different side of
the central mountain (Meru) engaged in guarding and
defending with the assistance of large armies under their
command the corresponding cpiarter of the heavens. You
will find incense lighted at the feet of these giants, and the
images themselves almost covered with slips of paper con-
taining either a record of vows to be performed in case of
prayer answered by these heroes, or a record of thanks for
favours already bestowed. For you will be told or may
witness it perhaps with your own eyes, that these demon-
kings are daily worshipped by the common people, who

110 Lecture the Third.

ascribe to them the power of healing all those diseases and
of preventing' or averting* all those calamities which are
supposed to be the work of evil spirits.

After crossing a second courtyard, you reach the prin-
cipal temple by ascending a small flight of steps. On
entering this building you see before you five small altars
placed in a row with an image on each, and if it is the
hour of prayer you may find a number of priests in full
canonicals resembling so many Roman Catholic priests,
chanting their monotonous litanies and responses to the
sound of bell and a sort ol wooden drum. The images be-
fore whom the priests every now and then prostrate them-
selves represent, as it may happen, either the five Celestial
Buddhas (Vairochana, Akchobhya, Amitabha, Ratna Samb-
hava and Amoghasiddha) or their spiritual sons the so-call-
ed five celestial Bodhisattvas (Samantabhadra, Vadjrapani,
Ratnapani, Padmapani i.e. Avalokiteshvara or Kwanyin, and
Vishvapani). Your guide will explain to you that every
historic Buddha may be viewed as possessing a triple form
of existence, living or having lived among men on earth
(Manuchi Buddha), existing metaphysically in Nirvana
(Dhyani Buddha), and finally as a reflex of himself in a
spiritual son generated in the world of forms for the pur-
pose of propagating the religion established by him during
his earthly career. He will further tell you by way of
example that the famous founder of the present Buddhist
Church was as Manuchi Buddha known under the name
Shakyamuni, as Dhyani Buddha however he is called Am-
itabha, whilst his reflex in the world of lorms or, so to

Biulclhisni, a Popular Religion. Ill

speak, his spiritual son is Padmapani (Avalokiteshvara).
The five imag-es therefore, before which you see the priests
kneeling" and prostrating themselves, all the while chant-
ing their prayers, are the celestial types or the spiritual
sons of those five ancient Buddhas who according to the
general doctrine of Buddhism have already appeared in
this present period (Kalpa).

Step nearer. You need not fear to give offence or to
disturb the devotion of men, who, whilst mechanically
continuing their monotonous litany and chanting their
responses, will stretch out a hand to examine the texture
of your clothes, to receive an alms, or offer to light your
cigar or criticise in whispers the shape and size of your
nose. Glance over the shoulder of one of those priests and
examine his manual of daily prayer. It is neatly printed
in large-sized full-bodied native type and in the native
character, but totally unintelligible to him, for it is San-
skrit, pure grammatical Sanskrit, systematically trans-
literated syllable by syllable. Listen to him, as he chants
rythmically indeed but in drowsy monotonous voice : sarva
tathagata schamam samuvasantu buddhya buddhyu siddhya
bodhaya bodhaya vibodhaya vibodhaya mochaya vimochaya
vimochaya sodhaya sodhaya visodhaya visodhaya saman-
tam mochaya samanta, &c., &c. Poor fellow, he has not
the slightest idea of the meaning of these words, though
he may have been chanting these Sanskrit prayers day
after day for ever so many years. But he has a notion
that these strange sounds have some magic effect, beneficial
for himself and for the salvation of his soul. There i.'i

112 Lecture the Tliird.

however tolerably good sense in the words of his prayer
which reads, when translated, as follows : may all the Ta-
thagatas {i.e. Buddhas) take up their abode in me ! ever
teach, ever instruct, ever deliver with all knowledge ! with
all knowledge deliver, deliver, completely deliver! purify,
purify, purify, completely purify ! deliver, oh deliver all
living creatures ! &c., &c.

Pass on from these poor deluded souls that grope in
the darkness for the light of a Saviour whom they know
not. On the walls to the right and left you see ranged the
life-sized statues of eighteen priests, Lohans or Arhans or
Lamas your guide calls them. They also receive homage
and worship by the priests who look upon them as the first
apostles of Northern Buddhism.

But what do we see there in the background, partly
screened by a large altar covered with censers and vases
and plates of offering ? Three colossal images, perhaps over
thirty feet high, placed in sitting posture, carefully execu-
ted and richly gilt, their countenances bearing an expres-
sion of placid tranquillity. Do not rashly jump at the con-
clusion that this must be a representation of the famous
trinity of Northern Buddhists. Perhaps it is so, perhaps
not. Appeal to your guide. If you are in a temple dedi-
cated to the v^^orship of Amitabha Buddha, the triad of
gigantic figures is Amitabha in the centre, Avalokiteshvara
(his spiritual son) at his left, and Mahastamaprapta, a
famous disciple of Buddha, at his right hand. Otherwise
you may have before your eyes what are popularly — though
not quite correctly — called the Buddhas of the past, present

BLuldhism, a Pofjular EeW^ioii. 11

r>y

and future, that is to say, Sli:'ik3''amuni the historic founder
of ancient Buddhism, Avalokiteshvara (Kvvanyin) the head
of the present Buddhist hierarchy, who is however strictly
speakinp^ not a Buddha hut a Bodhisattva, and Maitreya
the Buddha that is to appear in the future and is looked
upon as the coming" Messiah of Buddhism.

But suppose you have really before you the re-
presentation of the trinity, you will at once recognize the
statue of Shukyamuni Buddha by the curled hair and the
curious bump on the top of his head. The second statue is
conspicuous by four arms, two of which are folded in prayer
whilst the third holds a ros.iry and the fourth a book ; for
this is the second person in the trinity, called Dharma
(i.e. the law or religion). The third constituent of the
trinity called Samgha (i.e. the Church or clero;y) is re-
presented by a statue with two arms, of which the one
rests on the knee, whilst the other holds a lotos flower.

Well, you exclaim astonished, when your guide tells
you that these three are one, where has this dogma of a
trinity come from ? There is no trace of it in ancient or so
to speak classic Buddhism. Southern Buddhists even to
the present day know nothing of it. Where has it come
from ? Is it the Brahminical Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu
and Shiva, or is it })erhaps an imitation of the Christian
trinity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost I
Neither of the two. The Brahminical Trimurti is in
all probability of later growth than this Buddhist Triratna.
Besides there are no points of similarity in the offices
ascribed to tlic individu.ul conistiiueuLs of the Buddhist

llJl, Lecture the Third.

Triratna and the Brahminical Trimurti or the Christian
trinity. The origin of this Buddhist trinity is to he
explained in the following- way.

TRE TPdNITY.

§ 36. — It was natural that Shakyamuni Gautama
Buddha, the great founder of Buddhism, should become an
object of worship after his death. It was likewise natural
that when he was gone who had before been to his dis-
ciples the only criterion and judge of the truth, the
followers of Buddhism should, in the absence of any
standard work written by Shakyamuni himself and in the
absence of any fixed creed, feel the want of some com-
prehensive formula or some simple articles of faith, which
might be to them what the reg^ilce fidei or the Apostolic
Confession afterwards were to the early Christians.

In looking for such a short but comprehensive
condensation of the faith established by Shakyamuni, they
naturally remembered first those of his sayings, which he
had enunciated shortly before his death with the expressed
intention of giving his disciples some guidance for the
future. ^Ananda,' said he, ''when I am gone, you must
not think that there is no Buddha j the discourses I have
delivered and the precepts I have enjoined must be my
successors or representatives and be to you as Buddha.'
Well, there they had Buddha's discourses and precepts
{i.e. Dharma) placed in the same rank with Buddha himself
whom they already worshipped.

Again, among thoac seven imperishable precepts* which

BuddJdsni, a Popular Religion. 115

Sliuk3'amuni gave to his disciples shortly before his death,
the first in order is ' to keep assemblies or convocations
(Samg'ha) reo-ularly from time to time.' What can be more
natural now, than that the first preachers of Buddhism
after the removal of their g-reat master used those three
constituents Buddha, Dharma and Samgha as a standing-
theme for all their sermons, as the test of faith for those
who wished to enter the Buddhist Church ?

At any rate it is an indisputed fact, that immediately
after the death of Shakyamuni the formula * I take my
refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Samgha' was practically
in use as t\\Q formula fi del for laymembers of the Buddhist
Church, and likewise that this very formula was commonly
called the formula of the three refuges (Tiisharann).

This then was apparently the starting point aid
the first stage in the process of development through which
this Buddhist doctrine of a trinity passed. Had it stopped
here — and Southern Buddhism never went farther — wo-
could not speak of a trinity, but simply of a triple dogma,
of a triad of articles of faith, of which the first inculcated
the divine character of the founder of Buddhism as a
person, whilst the second referred to the abstract unity
of the Buddhist dogma, and the third to the collective unity
of the clergy. All three were considered as worthy of
reverence and divine worship, but they were not viewed as
three persons, nor as three persons in one j they formed
no trinity.

In the course of time however this doctrine underwent
some modification and received further development in the

116 Lecture the Third.

hands of Northern Buddhists and especially through the
influence of the Mahayana School. In this second period
of the history of the Buddhist Triratna, the Brahminical
Trimurti of Brahmsi, Vishnu and Sliiva, may have in-
fluenced the speculative minds of Buddhist teachers. But
even without assuming- this to be the case, one may easily
understand, how Buddhists of a speculative turn of mind
mio-ht, without much impulse from without, by the mere
impetus of speculative reasoning- come to unite those three
constituents or heads of doctrine and consider them as
a threefold manifestation of one historical person (Shakya-
muni). They would then look upon Buddha as the person-
ified intelligence, view his doctrine i.e. Dharma as the
incarnate Logos and call Samgha (the Buddhist Church or
communion of saints) the collective unison of both. This
at any rate is the form in which the idea of a Triratna was
cast by the dogmatists of this period.

With the rise of the Tantra School, ideas borrowed
from Shivaism and mixed with Brahminical theories began
to be freely transplanted upon the fruitful soil of Northern
Buddhism. Shivaism, which ascribes to Shiva a threefold
body, and Brahminism, with its corresponding Trimurti of
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, gave now a fresh impetus to
the development of the Buddhist trinitarian dogma.

In Nepaul a threefold form of existence was ascribed
to every Buddha, and the distinction, to which I alluded
above, was made of a terrestrial Buddha (Manuchi Bud-
dha), of a celestial Buddha (Dhyani Buddha) and of a
reflex of the latter (Dhyani Bodhisattva).

Buddhism, a Popular Religion. 117

In China and Tibet a similar distinction was made
with reo-ard to the nature of every Buddha. Intellig-ence
(Bodhi) being- the fundamental characteristic of a Buddha,
Northern Buddhists now disting-uished (1) essence, (2)
reflex, (3) practical application of his intellig-ence. Shak-
yamuni was therefore considered to be personified intelli-
j^ence, i.^. Buddha; his law or the religion established by
him, his reflex, as it were, left behind when the man en-
tered Nirvana, was called Dharma; whilst the practical
issue of both was said to be the Church or rather the priest-
hood, which alone forms the Church, and designated
Samg-ha.

Now each of these three manifestations of one histori-
cal person received further the attributes of personality,
and therefore to each a separate name was given. Buddha
as a person retained of course his name Shukyamuni ;
Dharma personified was called Vairotchana ; and Samgha
received the cognomen Lachana. But these three persons
were asserted to be essentially and siibstautiall}'' one.

Still the atheistic element in Buddhist speculation was
too strong and soon a reaction took place. Dharma was
now placed in the first rank — to do away with the prepon-
derance of the personal element, — and explained as the
unconditioned underived entity, combining in itself the
spiritual and material principles of the universe. From
Dharma, it was taught, proceeded Buddha by emanation
as the creative energy, and produced in conjunction with
Dliarma the third constituent of the trinity, viz. Samgha,
which was viewed as the comprehensive sum of all actual

118 Lecture the Third.

life or existence. Having- thus destroyed the personal
character of the first constituent (Dharma) in this trinity,
Dharma was further identified with Pradjna^ the highest
virtue according to the Buddhist system of morality and
the principal means for attaining to Nirvana, implying
especially a voluntary secession from the versatile pheno-
menal world into that of abstraction. Naturally then
Dharma was viewed as an abstract first principle, Buddha
became a mere phenomenon and Samgha an idea and
nothing more. This is the form under which the so called
Buddhist trinity is now-a-days promulgated among North-
ern Buddhists from Nepaul to Corea, even in popular
literature. And this is, therefore, the meaning of the
three colossal images, the sight of wliich has led us away
into this lengthy digression. But, be it understood, this is
the esoteric view of the Triratna.

The common people understand little or nothing of such
speculations. They see before them three separate deities,
they speak of and worship not a triune goJ but a triad of
idols, which they regard as three different divinities, totally
ignoring their unity and unaware that the three precious
ones they worship are after all but logical abstractions, a
purely philosophical fiction.

But to return to realities, suppose you visit some of
the smaller buildings, you will probably see in one of them
a fine marble pagoda reaching to the very rafters of the
roof. It is built in strict Indian style, tastefully decorated,
and forms the receptacle of some sacred relic. There may
be in it perhaps a hair of Buddha, or a tooth, or a particle

Buddhisni, a Popular Religion. 119

of his robe, or some relic of one of his disciples. There
also prayers are offered and sacrificial offerings of flowers^
candles and incense presented by the people, who, true to
the fetichistic habits of their forefathers, ascribe miraculous
healing powers to such relics.

You pass on to another row of building-s containing
several shrines. Conspicuous among them is the shrine of
Amitabha Buddha. A large crowd of people, chiefly men^
are going through the usual forms of worship there, testi-
fying to the great popularity of this deity. You notice on
the breast of the idol a strange cross (the Svastika). It is
exactly the same diagram as that which you may have seen
engraved on ancient church-bells in England and which
learned antiquarians unanimously declare to be the hammer
of Thor (the Scandinavian god of thunder). Perhaps also
you remember to have heard that among the German pea-
santry and in Iceland the same figure is used as a magical
charm to dispel thunder. Well, you turn to your guide.
What is the meaning of this emblem ? He informs you
that it is the mystic shibboleth of the believers in the
Western paradise, an accumulation of lucky signs posses-
sing ten thousand efficacies. But what about the Western

paradise ?

THE PARADISE OF THE WEST.

§ 37. — The dogma of this paradise in the West, the
Nirvana of the common people, was (the tradition asserts)
transmitted by Shariputtra, one of the greatest disciples of
i^hakyamuni. It is said that Buddha first told him of the
existence of a land of extreme happiness (Sukhavati), of a

120 Lecture the Third.

perfect paradise in the Far West, and gave in answer to
Sliariputtra's questions the following- particulars, which to
the present day are generally believed in as gospel truth
by Northern Buddhists.

In that paradise in the West, it is said, with its
millions of Buddhas distributed over the country according
to the eight points of the compass, there is one there
discoursing on religion. His name is Amitabha. He is so
called because he is substantially light, boundless light,
illuminating every part of his dominions. He is also of
boundless age, immortal, and all his people are likewise
enjoying immortality.

Now this paradise of the West, situated beyond the
confines of our visible world, contains four precious things,
or wonders. In the first instance it is a kingdom of
extreme happiness, there is there fulness of life, and no
pain nor sorrow mixed with it, no need of being born again,
no Nirvana even. In the second instance there is there a
seven-fold row of railings or balustrades, thirdly a seven-
fold row of silken nets and lastly a seven-fold row of trees
hedging in the whole country. In the midst of it there are
seven precious ponds, the water of which possesses all the
eight qualities which the best water can have, viz., it is
still, it is pure and cold, it is sweet and agreeable, it is
light and soft, it is fresh and rich, it tranquillizes, it
removes hunger and thirst and finally it nourishes all
roots. The bottom of these ponds is covered with gold sand,
and round about there are pavements constructed of
precious stones and metals, and many two-storied pavilions

Buddhism, a Popular Religion. 121

built of richly-coloured transparent jewels. On the sur-
face of the water there are beautiful lotos flowers floating,
each as larg-e as a carriage wheel, displaying the most
dazzling colours, and dispersing the most fragrant aroma.
There are also beautiful birds there which make delightful
enchanting music, and at every breath of wind the very
trees on which those birds are resting join in the chorus,
shaking their leaves in trembling accords of sweetest
harmony. Those silken nets also which environ the whole
paradise chime in. This music is like Liecler ohne Worte ;
its melodies speak to the heartj but they discourse on
Buddha, Dharma and Samgha, and wake an echo in every
breast, so that all the immortals that live in this happy land
instinctively join in hymns of praise, devoutly invoking
Buddha, Dharma and Samgha. But it is all the doing of
the miraculous power of Amitabha, who transforms him-
self into those birds and produces those unearthly strains of
heavenly music.

In this way the story goes on transplanting to this
paradise in the West everything that an Asiatic considers
beautiful and charming. But it is remarkable what a pure
moral atmosphere all the descriptions of this pure land, as it
is called, are breathing, for it is mentioned as one of the chief
characteristics of this paradise, that no sin enters therein,
no evil thought, no wickedness. All the inhabitants of it
are pure and holy men. I say men, because there is no
difference of sex there, but every woman, when born into
the Western land, is at once transformed into a man.
Another remarkable point in this dogma is, that the way b}'

122 Lecture the Third.

which one may obtain entrance into this paradise is exceed-
ingly easy. For it is by no means absolutely necessary to
renounce the world and to submit to ascetic austerities,
celibacy and monastic rules, or to g-o through all the stages
of abstract meditation and continued contemplation. What
is absolutely required is merely an assiduous and devout
worship of Amitabha. ^ The very name of this Buddha,'
says a sacred text, '■ if pronounced by a devout heart a
thousand times or five thousand times, will effectually
dispel all harassing thoughts, all fightings within and fears
without. A continued sincere worship of Amitabha will
release men from the restless unceasing eddies of transmig-
ration and bring them to the enjoyment of eternal peace and
rest in the pure land of the Western heaven. And if once
there, there will be no danger of being reborn again into
the world of trouble and misery, or of having again to
suffer the pangs of dying.'

It is needless to remark, that this whole dogma,
beautiful as it is in its conception, and a true response
to the natural yearning of the human heart for an eternal
Sabbath in heaven, is a flat contradiction to all the leading
doctrines of Buddhism, granting as it does such an easy
egress out of the Sansara and substituting personal im-
mortality for the utter annihilation of the Nirvana theor3^

But this leads us to the question, from what source did
Northern Buddhists derive this strange medley ? For it is
another remarkable feature about this doctrine that the
very name of Amitabha and his paradise are perfectly un-
known to the Buddhists of Ceylon, Burmah and Siam,

Buddhism, a Popular Religion. 123

Strange to say, the dog-ma of AmitAbha made its first
appearance in the literature of Northern Buddhism as early
as 147 A.D., when a book under the name of Amitabhasutra
was brought from the headquarters of the Tochari Tartars
(Cashmere) to China by a Cashmerian priest called Chi-lu-
kia-ch'an. The next appearance of Amitabha is in a list of
1000 Buddhas devised by the Mahayana School. But it was
not earlier than the fifth century that the worship of
Amitabha and the dogma of a paradise in the West began
to spread largely.

The great Chinese traveller Fahien wandered (A.D.
400) all over India, but though he alludes to having noticed
the worship of Avalokiteshvara and Mandjushri, who are
closely associated with the worship of Amitabha, he never
mentions the latter, and does not appear to have met in his
travels v^ith any trace of a worship addressed to Amitabha.
His countryman Hiuentsang, who (A.D. 629-45) passed
through Central Asia and India, and published his
observations in a very extensive and accurate form, is
likewise silent on the subject.

Taking these circumstances together with the total
absence of the dogma of Amitdbha, for which the Buddhist
canon of Ceylon, Burmah and Siam is conspicuous, it
seems evident, that India was not the birthplace of the
worship of Amitabha.

And now we may go a step farther. There is another
circumstance which makes it probable that the dogma
in question originated in Cashmere. It reached China in
connection with that distinction of Dhyani Buddhas and

jf^4 Lecture the Third.

Dhjdni Bodhisattvas and in connection with that before-
mentioned list of 1000 Buddhas, both doctrines beings
a product of the Mahayana School which was first started
in Cashmere and Nepaul.

Considering" then that Amitabha was originally con-
ceived as impersonal, as the ideal representation of
boundless light, — a significantly Manichsean idea, — remem-
bering- also that his name is mentioned in a list of 1000
Buddhas which naturally reminds us of the 1000 Zarathus-
tras of the Persians, and taking finally into account that the
whole doctrine of Amilabha and his paradise in the West
is not only unknown to Southern Buddhists, but diametrical-
ly opposed to the first principles of Buddhism, it seems
most natural to seek the origin of this dogma in Manichsean
or Persian ideas influencing the Buddhism of Cashmere
and Nepaul.

THE GODDESS OF MERCY.

§ 38. — Close to the shrine of Amitabha you will find
that of Avalokiteshvara. As the former was especially wor-
shipped by men then habituated to looking to Western
countries as centres of civilizing influences, thus women
throng round the altar of the latter in search of a guide
to the promised Eldorado popularly supposed to be some-
where in the West. Examine the idol before you. It has
the appearance of a female, with three faces joined to
one head and a large number of arms, each grasping some
symbol of doctrine or some weapon of defence.

Perhaps your guide informs you with the utmost
gravity, that this idol has not been made by human hands

Buddhism, a Popular Religion. 125

but fell directly down from the clouds. There might be
some sense in this statement if he referred to the dogma
connected with the divinity which this idol represents.
For, like the doctrine of Amitabha, it does not seem to have
come from the workshops of either Vedic or Brahamanic
mythology, nor does Southern Buddhism know of its origin.
And yet this Avalokiteshvara — whose name is evident-
ly Sanskrit — seems to have been largely worshipped in
Northern and Central India a few centuries after the begin-
ning of our era, and is at the present day the most popular
deity of Northern Buddhists. Various names, titles and
offices are given to this god — or goddess, for she is most
commonly now represented as a woman. In China she is
called Kvvanyin (a literal translation of her Sanskrit name),
in Japan she is known as Kwannon (a corruption of Kwan-
yin), whilst the Tibetans call her Cenresi and the Mongols
Ergetu Khomsim. But all these names and all the legends
connected with this deity express one and the same circle
of ideas : that this divinity is the god or goddess * that has
a thousand arms and a thousand eyes and a merciful heart,'
that she listens with compassion to the prayers of all who
are in any distress of body or mind, especially however
extending a saving hand to those who are in danger on the
sea; that she is now the invisible head and ruler of the
present Buddhist Church, appearing now and then in the
form of man or woman, to interfere on behalf of the faith-
ful, to establish the doctrine of the paradise in the West, to
save souls from hell, to assist in the propagation of Bud-
dhism and so forth.

126 Lecture the Third.

Many are the leg-ends connected with this popular
apostle of mercy. Avalokiteshvara is first heard of as hav-
ing resided at Potala, a port at the mouth of the Indus, the
reputed home of Shakyamuni's ancestors. Another Potala,
likewise the scene of manifestations of Avalokiteshvara's
miraculous saving powers, is placed by the legend in the
South of India, East of the Malaya mountains in Malakuta,
that is to say somewhere on the coast of Malabar.
When Simhala, an Indian Buddhist, was shipwrecked on
the coast of Ceylon and ensnared by savage sirens (Rakch-
asis), Avalokiteshvara appeared in the shape of a horse and
carried him across the sea to India, whence he returned
with an army, slew the sirens and founded the Kingdom
of Ceylon, thenceforth the headquarters of Southern Bud-
dhism.

In China, Avalokiteshvara appeared as a woman, born
under the name Kwanyin, as the third daughter of a (fabu-
lous) king called Shubhavyuha (lit. Chwang-yen-wang),
who — as the tradition, which indentifies him with Chwang-
wangofthe Cbow dynasty, boldly asserts, — lived about
696 B. C. Her father was an unbeliever and finding him-
self unable to overrule her objections against marriage, he
allowed her to go into a convent, but by his orders she was
there made to perform the most degrading offices for the
other nuns. Celestial spirits, Richis, however came invisi-
bly to do all the menial work for her. When her father
found it out, he became so enraged that he set fire to the
convent. But a rain fell and extinguished the fire and it
appeared that no harm had been done to any of the five

Buddhisnif a Popular Beli'^ion. 127

hundred inmates. Thereupon Lhe kino; ordered his daugh-
ter, Kwanyin, to be arrested and brought into court, but he
secretly told her mother to coax the girl into submission.
Kwanyin however remained steadfast; she would rather die
than be married. The king then sent for the executioner
and ordered him to cut off her head. But as often as the
sword touched her neck, the blade split into a thousand
pieces, without injuring her. The king now ordered her to
be stifled with a red cloth. It was done, but a white tiger
suddenly apppeared and carried her body off to a dark
forest. There her soul, being in a state of torpor, perceived
a youth who waved a banner in his hands and ordered her
to follow him into the presence of Yama (the ruler of Ha-
des). She followed him, but whilst passing through the
various chambers of torture in hell she kept her hands folded,
continually invoking Amitabha Buddha. Thereupon a rain
of flowers fell from heaven, the earth produced golden lotos
flowers, and all the instruments of torture used in hell were
smashed. When she appeared before Yama, the latter, see-
ing that hell changed under her footsteps into paradise, ex-
claimed in righteous indignation : how can the world be
made better if we are to have no hell ? So he ordered Kwan-
yin to be sent back to the dark forest whence she came.
There she suddenly found herself awake as if from a dream.
I was in heaven, she exclaimed, and yet here I And myself
again on earth ! Whither shall I go to dwell ? Whilst
saying this she found herself confronted by a Buddhist
hermit, who invited her, with many bland speeches and
subtle arguments, to share his hermitage with him.

128 Lectuj'e the Third.

Indignantly she refused this offer, reminding' the hermit
of Buddha's injunction that nuns and monks should live
apart. But he replied, I am Buddha himself and only came
to test your virtue. He forthwith called a Naga (dragon)
spirit, who produced a large lotos flower, invited her to sit
on it, and thus conveyed her to the island of Potala on
the China coast (now called P'ootoo). There Kwanyin
lived for nine years, saving many mariners from imminent
peril and shipwreck, and healing the diseases of innumerable
beings. Hearing that her father was dangerously ill, she
cut all the flesh off" her own arms, and made it into a medicine
which restored him to health. To show his gratitude he
ordered a statue of Kwanyin to be erected with arms and
eyes complete, but as the word complete has in Chinese
the same sound (ts^ien) as the word for thousand (ts'ien),
the two terms differing only in tone, the sculptor mis-
understood the king's order. Thus it happened that a
statue with a thousand eyes and a thousand arms per-
petuated her memory.

The island of P'ootoo, where Kwanyin resided till her
death, was in after times relieved from all taxes, handed
over to the priesthood, and as the worship of Kwanyin
spread over the whole of China and over all the neighbouring
countries, this island continued to be and still is the object
of veneration to which pious pilgrims resort from the
farthest regions.

In Tibet this deity is supposed to have been a man,
Aval6kiteshvara (as a male deity) is believed to be the ances-
tor of the Tibetan people. It is said that in ancient times he

BitddhisDi, a Popular Religion. 129

transformed himself into a monkey (Brasrinpo), and coha-
biting with a demon, who for that purpose assumed the form
of a female monkey (Brasrinmo or KhagToma); he became
the father of three sons and three daug-hters. His children
then peopled the previously uninhabited country of Tibet,
and thus it has come to pass that the Tibetans, like true
Darwinians, g'lory in their supposed descent from a monkey.
Avalokiteshvara afterwards exerted himself in various ways
to spread the doctrines of Buddhism in Tibet, and it soon
became an established custom, to accord supreme spirit-
ual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction to those only, who were
considered to be incarnations of Avalokiteshvara. Like the
Chinese, the Tibetans also have their Potala, a mountain in
Lhassa, on the top of which towers the residence of the
Dalai Lama in whom and whose successors Avalokiteshvara
is supposed to be constantly incarnate.

Japan also has its thousand-handed Kwannon, and the
same is the case with all the other countries within the pale
of Northern Buddhism, the legends there differing* only
through a slight local colouring- from those current in China
and elsewhere. One example will suffice. A Japanese
tradition relates, that during the civil wars of the middle
ages a political refugee, called Morihisa, hid himself in the
temple of the thousand-handed Kwannon at Kiomidzu in
Kioto and implored this deity with ceaseless prayers for a
thousand days. His enemies, however, discovered his re-
treat and dragged him out to the seashore for execution.
But the executioner found all his efforts foiled by the god
Kwannon, for at every stroke he essayed, the sword blade

130 Lecture the Third.

split into a thousand pieces without injuring Morihisa.
His enemy, who had previously slain all the other members of
Morihisa's clan, received also a warning through his own
wife, to whom Kwannon had appeared in a dream interced-
ing on behalf of Morihisa. The latter was therefore set at
liberty and being the acknowledged protege of Kwannon
he rose to the highest power in the State.

It is impossible to say where and by whom this dogma
of Avalokiteshvara was got up. Judging from internal
evidences it would appear that it was first developed by the
Mahdyana School. This School gave Avalokiteshvara even
a place in the trinity, uniting him (her) as the personifica-
tion of love and charity with another fictitious Boddhisattva,
called Mandjushri, the apotheosis of transcendental wisdom,
and with Vadjrapani, the Indra of the Veda, now looked
upon as the god of thunder and the personification of power.
Forming one of the constituents of the trinity, Avalokitesh-
vara received the title Ishvara (Lord), and for the same
reason it is that he (she) is often represented with three faces
or with eleven faces arranged in three divisions.

Afterwards the Tantra School applied its idea of Cele-
stial Buddhas and Bodhisattvas upon this dogma and Ava-
lokiteshvara was then declared to be the spiritual reflex
or son of Amitabha Buddha.

Shivaism also had its infiuenca upon the formation of
the dogma in question, and Avalokiteshvara is consequen-
tly often represented with three eyes, with a crown of
skulls on her head or a necklace of skulls or a rosary made
of finger bones. Shivaism especially promoted Avalokile-

Buddhism, a Popular' Religion. 131

shvara's being viewed as a female deity endowed with great
powers of sorcery and as the authoress of a most popular
magic formula, * om mani padme hum/ which is used by
all Northern Buddhists as a favourite formula of exorcism
or inscribed on amulets, on houses, walls, pillars, books,
pill-boxes, coins and so forth, being supposed to be the
most effective charm against calamities and noxious in-
fluences of all kinds.

I have gone into all these legendary accounts current
among the people with reference to this particular deity,
because they form a fair specimen of the popular hagiology
of Northern Buddhists. Similar stories are told about
many other minor deities, whose effigies you will find pro-
fusely scattered over the many courts and chapels con-
nected with any large temple. Most of them bear names
which connect their origin and history with Brahmanic or
even Vedic mythology. Many however of these dii minores
are purely deifications of ancient native worthies. Famous
priests, physicians of great renown, women of extraordinary
devotion, munificence and piety, have been honoured with
a place in the popular pantheon, and are as devoutly wor-
shipped in their native countries as any of the ancient Bud-
dhas and Bodhisattvas.

INTERIOR OF A MONASTERY.

§ 39. — But suppose you retrace your steps through the
various temples you have visited, you will find it interest-
ing to have a look at the apartments occupied by the
priests. They have most of them their own cells, but dine

132 Lecture the Third.

together in one large hall; which, together with the kit-
chen and its enormous rice-hoilers, are worthy a visit.
The abbot has his private rooms apart from the cells of" the
priests. You may find him willing to receive you, but you
will be astonished if you enter his rooms, expecting to find
there the same primitive simplicity and economy, which
you noticed when passing through the apartments allotted
to the use of the priests, and which reminded you so strong-
ly of the internal arrangements of a Roman Catholic mona-
stery. A modern abbot takes it generally very easy. If
his monastery is not too far from any centre of foreign
commerce, he will show you with pride a collection of
articles de luxe. He has watches and clocks of foreign
manufacture, photographs of less than questionable decen-
cy, and he is generally not only a confirmed opium smoker,
but considers himself a good judge of champagne, port and
sherry. His attendants are invariably laymen, relatives of
his own, who may have no intention wliatever to take the
vows. But the same abbot may also have a printing press
with moveable types, likewise of foreign manufacture, and
you may see it turning out neat reprints of the most popu-
lar portions of the Buddhist scriptures, or little tracts and
pamphlets of local reputation.

After a visit to the gardens, which are generally well
kept and abound in curious specimens of artificial training,
after a passing glance at the place where the bodies of
deceased priests are burned and the tomb which covers
their ashes, you return through the labyrinth of galleries
and courts. In one of the latter you may now notice a

BuddJdsni, a Popular Religion. 133

series of little chambers, popularly called chambers of hor-
rors, containing- statuary representations of the various tor-
tures supposed to be employed in the various compartments
of hell. For your guide will tell you, with a sl}^ hit at
yourself, that all those, who do not believe in Buddhism or
violate its commandments, will after death be reborn in
hell. He will inform you that there are underneath our
earth eight large hells of extreme heat, eight more of ex-
treme cold, again eight hells of utter darkness, and on the
edge of each universe ten cold hells, but as each of these
hells has many antechambers and smaller hells attached, all
being places of torture, there are in reality altogether over
a hundred thousand of such chambers of horrors. A plea-
sant prospect to heretics like yourself, — your priest will
add.

Whilst Southern Buddhists knew only eight principal
hells of extreme heat and minor hells on the extreme bor-
der of each universe, Northern Buddhists added the above-
mentioned cold hells and beside those a special hell for
females, called the placenta-tank, which is believed to con-
sist of an immense pool of blood, and from this hell it is
said no release is possible. Poor women, Buddhism does
not seem to appreciate the rights nor even the goodness of
women. All the other hells, with the exception of this
female apartment, are only purgatories, and release from
them can be procured through good works or through the
atoning masses performed by the priests on behalf of the
sufferers in hell.

On passing out through the gate, your eye may per-

134 Lecture the Third.

haps be arrested by a crowd of people surrounding a num-
ber of pigs wallowing in the richest food thrown before
them. You will also notice in a conspicuous position near
these pigs a poor-box, into which the people drop their
offerings of money. What is it all about ? Look at the
inscription affixed to that box in large staring letters ' save
life !' The greatest Buddhist commandment is that which
forbids the taking of life. All life, human as well as ani-
mal life, is absolutely sacred in the eyes of the Buddhist
devotee. The killing of animals for the purpose of food is
a heinous offence. Still more so is the love of cruelty
which leads the strong to prey upon the weak and enables
the sportsman, the fox-hunter, the deer-stalker, the pigeon-
shooter in heathen and Christian countries to derive a hor-
rible enjoyment from the piteous sufferings of poor dumb
animals. Those pigs are therefore exhibited by the priests
to remind the people of this greatest of all Buddhist com-
mandments. And the people drop their mites into the box
by way of atoning to some extent for their own shortcom-
ings in that respect. For Northern Buddhists are — with
the exception of the priests — by no means vegetarians, and
even priests may be seen privately enjoying the good
things of this world in the shape of animal food. Still I
should think you will be inclined to bestow some praise on
these pious priests who charitably feed those ' sacred pigs,'
as European travellers have styled them, for the mere
respect of animal life, who interpret the command Uhou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself in a wider sense even
than Christ did, and see their neighbours not only in their

Bioddhisni, a Popular Religion. loo

fellovvmen, but also in every single specimen of the animal
world, in every wild beast and even in the despised pig*
that wallows in the mud. And certainly a public protest
against cruel sports and useless destruction of animal life
is a good and needful thing, for sports of a cruel character
do tend to blunt the feelings and develop that terrible cal-
lousness of disposition which leads to an utter disregard of
the sanctity of human life. But, on the other hand, it is
unfair to compare this Buddhist commandment ^ thou
shalt not take life ' with the religion of Him who would
not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax,
and to give the palm — as some European admirers of Bud-
dhism have actually done — to this Buddhist ideal of cha-
rity. Just ask your guide whether the Buddhist Church,
which so laiidcibly extends its charity ^YdH to the brute
creation and assiduously feeds sacred pigs in its monas-
teries, exerts herself to ameliorate the condition of poor
suffering humanity ? He will have to acknowledge that
no hospitals, no asylums for the blind, the deformed, the
destitute, have ever been founded by a Buddhist commu-
nity. Alms, indeed, are encouraged, but they are to be
bestowed on the worthiest, on the priest, the cloister, the
Church, and thus the current of charity is diverted from the
destitude or outcasts of society whose very destitution is
according to the Buddhist scriptures a proof of their un-
worthiness, to the worthiest on earth, to the community of
priests, who are bound to receive the gifts bestowed, in
order that the faithful may acquire merit, though forbidden
by the self-renouncing principles of their creed to retain

136 Lecture the Tliircl.

tliem for their private advantage. Thus it was brought
about that the Buddhist priests take to feeding sacred pigs.
A Buddhist Peabodj;, therefore, v^^ould be doing the correct
thing if he were to throw all his humanitarian eiforts with
all his money — before the swine.

It is almost needless to remark, after the above given
explanations, that those sacred pigs receive nowhere in any
Buddhist country anything like worship either by the
priests or by the people. And yet a member of the Ame-
rican Expedition to China and Japan fell into this error
and published it abroad in the printed report of that
expedition. After describing what he calls the sacred pigs
in the sacred styes in Canton, he unfortunately adds, ' It
was something of a curiosity, though somewhat saddening
in ine ren'eCt.iQPs it occasioned, to behold the sanctified
pork and the reverence with w.uich it is worshipped.' I
would not have mentioned this gross niietfike, had not a
learned writer in the Fortnightly Review (Feb., 1870, p.
215) based on this misconception a whole system of pig-
worship and pages of folk-lore speculations concerniig
* the primitive mysterious boar' who Ms worshipped in
China and was worshipped among the Celts,' and placed
that supposed pig-worship of China into analogy with * the
existing worship of Vishnu in his avatar as a boar.' There
is no people in the world fonder of pork than the Chinese
are, but there is not a trace of porcine worship to be found
among them, unless the worship of the pig consists in
eating it.

Bitddhisi7V, a Popular Religion. 137

BUDDHIST POLYTHEISM.

§ 40. — Well, 3'ou have visited a fair specimen of the
popular pantheon of Northern Buddhism. What is the
result ? You have seen multitudes of men and v^romen
bowing down before idols of clay, offering* their gifts,
addressing them in earnest words of prayer and praise and
thanksgiving, consulting the oracle by throwing lots in
their presence and receiving a slip of paper issued in the
name of the individual deity in the ambiguous terms of
Delphi ', you have noticed the reverence, the trust, the
fervour with which — not the priests indeed — but the
common people appeal to these legions of gods.

Is this the boasted Atheism of the Buddhist religion ?
Surely many, even of the common people, may be able to
distinguish the idol from the divinity it represents, but it is
undeniable that even they have before their minds during
the act of worship the idea of a personal being of great
power, mighty to save, to bless, to avert misfortune. From
the legends connected with the several deities worshipped
by the people it appears that they all were originally
human beings. Though they now appear clothed in
supernatural garb, heavenly spirits, genii, demons, they all
are believed to have been human beings, plain men or
women, at some time or other. And yet the very names
Buddha, Bodhisattva, Arhat, which once signified but
moral fallible men, more or less advanced in the path to
Nirvana, have in the parlance of the multitude in Buddhist

138 Lecture the Third.

countries assumed a far higher sig-nificance. Buddha is to
them simply the highest God, the Deus opthnus maximiis,
Bodhisattvas (and Arhats) are derai-gods. The former
is God in esse, the latter are gods in posse. Both, Bud-
dhas and Bodhisattvas, are worshipped and relied on as God
by Northern Buddhists. The difference lies but in this,
that Buddhas are looked upon as highest in rank, whilst
Bodhisattvas are considered to be nearest in sympathy.
So then, as there are many Buddhas and many Bodhisatt-
vas, the religion of Northern Buddhists is practically
systematic deification of humanity, displayed in a thorough-
ly polytheistic form of worship.

BUD DEIST MONOTHEISM.

§ 41. — But in many instances these polytheistic prac-
tices have been developed into a form of religion very much
akin to Monotheism. Nepaul for instance has one supreme
Buddha, called Adi-Buddha. Several European scholars
(Hodgson, and after him Bunsen and others) have taken
hold of this fact and triumphantly proclaimed abroad, that
Buddhism, so far from being a system of Atheism, had led
its devotees (in Nepaul at least) to direct Monotheism.

This assertion however requires some modification.
If we examine the facts of the case, we find that the term
Adi-Buddha means simply ' an ancient Buddha ' and that
the Nepaulese like all other Buddhists know not less than
seven ancient Buddhas. Still it is true that Nepaulese
Buddhists— like all Northern Buddhists who are under the
influence of the Mahayana School— show a decided pre-

Buddhism, 'a Popular Religion. 139

ference for one of these ancient worthies or rather for his
celestial form (Dhyjini Buddha), and this celestial Buddha
is then styled Adi- Buddha par excellence. Indeed they
address him and worship him very much as if he were
a supreme g'od^ but theoretically speaking- his personality
is lost in philosophical abstractions which identify this
Adi-Buddha with the highest moral virtue (Pradjna), and
convert him into a mere hyperbole, a mere fig-ure of speech
expressing* the existence of a moral law in the universe.
Strictly speaking* they do not look upon him as the personal
creator and sustainer of the universe. And yet it is
undeniable that there is at the bottom of this Adi-Buddha
theory a strong tendency towards Monotheism, which,
though counteracted by philosophical scholasticism, shows
itself in the popularized form of this dogma of one Adi-
Buddha.

The common people of Nepaul reverence and pray
to this Buddha in decided preference to all other Buddhas.
They rely upon him for protection and salvation, treating
him to all practical intents and purposes as if he were
the highest God, a personal being* of unlimited wisdom,
goodness and power, the very creator and sustainer of
the world. What this Adi-Buddha is to the Nepaulese,
the same is the above-mentioned Amitabha Buddha, with
his spiritual progeny (Avalokiteshvara), to the majority
of Northern Buddhists. When they come to reason on the
subject, they indeed allow that he is not the first cause of
the existence of the universe, that he is but the regent
of the far-famed paradise in the West, and yet practically

lJi,0 Lecture the Third.

they implore him, or his vice-gerent Avalokiteshvara, as if
he were Almighty God, creator and ruler of the whole
world, omniscient, omnipresent. Though sceptic philoso-
phers may treat this dogma as a mere allegory, the common
people stoutly maintain their belief in Amitabha as the
highest personal God, and in the objective reality of his
paradise.

We see therefore in this popular belief in an Adi-
Buddha or Amitabha the instinctive groping of the re-
ligious conscience after the unknown God, a faint glimmer-
ing of the truth which revelation alone can bring home to
the human mind in full undimmed clearness. The same is
the case with that popular legend of a paradise in the
Western region : it is a spark of divine light, a particle
of the truth which Christianity alone has unfolded in
the revelation of a heavenly Jerusalem, where there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, for the former
things have passed away.

BUDDHIST NOTIONS OF ATONEMENT

§ 42. — There is another point in which the religious
conscience of Northern Buddhists, unsatisfied by ancient
Buddhism, added to the inherited traditional stock of ideas.
Ancient Buddhism knows of no sin-atoning power; it holds
out to the troubled guilty conscience no prospect of mercy,
no chance of obtaining forgiveness, no possibility of
justification, allowing not even so much as extenuation
of guilt under any circumstances whatever.

A Buddha is not a Saviour. The only thing he claims

Buddhism, a Popular Religion. IJfl

to do for others is to show them the way of doing good and
overcoming evil, to point out the path to Nirvana hy
his example, and to encourage others by means of teaching
and exhortation and warning to follow his footsteps. If
any human being is to reach Nirvana, it must be done
by independent action. Do good and you will be saved, —
this is the long and short of the Buddhist religion. The
sinner must expiate his guilt by punishment and by re-
doubled exertions in good works. There is indeed a
ceremony of confession of sins, — for the priest ; but it only
serves to set him right again in his relation to the com-
munity of priests ; it does not influence his prospects of
future happiness.

Buddhism therefore is the hardest of all laws, for
it blesses indeed the righteous, but it curses and con-
demns the sinner without extending a helping hand, with-
out promising* any pardon to any repenting contrite heart.
There is a Nirvana for the virtuous and innumerable hells
are there for the wicked, and nothing more. Every
individual has to work out his own salvation, unaided,
unpitied, uncared for, placed between heaven and hell,
trembling under the unrelenting yoke of the moral law of
his religion, — naturally a burden too heavy to be borne.

We have already seen how the common people
endeavour to propitiate the gods of their own making
by sacrificial offerings, supposing thereby to obtain in
spite of their own shortcomings the favour of these deities.
We have further seen how the same power was attributed
to prayer, to a mere invocation of the names of certain

lJi,2 Lecture the Third.

deities or the mere recital of short forms of prayer,
"believed to have been invented by them. These mystic
formulae, invariably couched in Sanskrit, vs^ere popularly
trusted in, being supposed to possess magic sin-atoning
and saving powers. The very circumstance of their being'
constituted by the unintelligible sounds of a foreign
language inspired the people with so much more awe and
confidence. Omne ignotum pro mirahlle est. Foremost
among these magic sounds ranks the triliteral mono-
syllable om (or aum), the symbol of the trinity, the I am
that I am, the alpha and omega of Northern Buddhism.

Of course this state of things could not be endured by
a clergy fond of wielding uncontrolled power over the
multitude. The priests had foresight enough to under-
stand that the power of prayer, if freely accessible to all,
would diminish their influence upon the people. It was an
encroachment upon their privileges. As however the vox
popuU — -in this case something like vox Dei — was too
strong to resist it with any hope of success, they adopted
the idea of atonement through prayer, but took it into
their own keeping, establishing an elaborate ritual for the
purpose of expiating guilt, counteracting evil influences of
all sorts, alleviating the tortures of hell, procuring release
from hell and re-birth into one of the heavens or into the
Western paradise. To engraft this ritual upon the orthodox
tradition, to prove that it was in perfect accordance with
the principles of ancient Buddhism, they produced a most
voluminous literatue (Yogatchara Sutras and Dharanis) on
the subject, ingeniously forging whole Sutras composed in

Buddhism, a Popular lleligloji. I4S

ancient style and making* Shukjamuni himself therein
enunciate those ideas of an atonement procurable through
the intercession of the priests.

Thus they established a ritual for the purpose under the
pretended authority of Shakyamuni. But the ritual in
question is so richly interlarded with Sanskrit prayers, and
the ceremonies prescribed in it are so complicated, and sur-
rounded with so much hocus-pocus, that it not only im-
posed upon the common people who were appalled by the
assumed halo of ancient authority and listened with super-
stitious fear and reverence to the mystic jarg-on the very
obscurity of which made them consider it profound, but it
made the whole ceremonial a monopoly of the priests. For
they alone have the key to the understanding- of the whole,
they alone can teach its mechanical details.

Quite a number of mag-ic paraphernalia, the handling*
of which remains a mystery to the uninitiated, is necessary
for the proper performance of that ritual. There is the so-
called sceptre of Indra (Vadjra) used as a magic wand for
the purpose of mantic conjurations and exorcism, there are
mag'ic circles and mystic diagrams to be drawn, holy water
to be consecrated and sprinkled about, rice and iiowers to
be scattered to the rythmic recital of magic incantations
(in Sanskrit), whilst the officiating priest goes through cer-
tain stages of eestatic meditation in order to identify him-
self with the particular deity invoked in each case and
accompanies the prayers of the priests by mysterious mani-
{tulation.s (Mudra).

To give an idea of the latter, I will but quote a pas-

i^-^ Lecture the Third.

sage or two from a commentary to one of those rituals.
^ The officiating* priest has in his heart, pronounces with his
mouth and imitates with his fingers the mystic (Sanskrit)
character hri, whereupon from his heart, mouth and fingers
proceed rays of red-coloured light which destroy hell {i.e.
for the benefit of those individuals on behalf of whom the
ritual is gone through).' Again we read in the same work,
* the officiating priest, lifting up the middle-finger of each
hand and pressing both hands close together forms the sign
hri, whereupon from the points of his middle fingers a
stream of mercy goes out which takes away the sins and
guilt of all evil-doers.' It is needless to add that this
ritual, intended especially for the benefit of the souls of
deceased persons and in that case accompanied by the
burning of many domestic utensils and articles of luxury,
all made of paper, is only performed in return for a certain
sum of money paid to the priests, and that the length and
consequent efficacy of the ceremonial gone through on
behalf of any individual depends upon the length of the
latter's purse.

CONCLUSION.

This then is the practical religion of Northern Bud-
dhism, or rather, I should say, this is what classic
Buddhism, has come to in the hands of the common people.

I take leave of my subject, which I make bold to say,
I have endeavoured to elucidate honestly and impartially.
I have striven to do justice to everything that is good and
true in Buddhism. But in the interest of truth I have to

BuddliisnVf a Popular Beligioii. 1^5

confess, and I trust the above given facts will bear me out
in the assertion, that Buddhism is after all neither better
nor worse than any other religion built up by man : it is a
science without inspiration, a religion without God, a body
without a spirit, unable to regenerate, cheerless, cold, dead
and deplorably barren of results. Can these dry bones
live ?

FINIS.

WORKS BY DR. E. J. EITEL.

HANDBOOK FOR THE STUDENT OF CHINESE
BUDDHISM. By the Rev. E. J. Eitel. London,
Trubner & Co. Hong-kong", Lane, Crawford &
Co. Crown 8vo., pp. viii. and 224. 1870.

BUDDHISM: ITS HISTORICAL, THEORETICAL
AND POPULAR ASPECTS. By E. J. Eitel, Ph.
D., Tubing-. London, Trubner & Co. Hong-kong',
Lane, Crawford & Co. First Edition, 1871. Se-
cond Edition, 1873. Third Edition, Revised with
Additions. 12mo., pp. iv. and 145. 1884.

FENG-SHUI; OR THE RUDIMENTS OF NATURAL
SCIENCE IN CHINA. By E. J. Eitel, M.A.,
Ph. D., Tubing. London, TrUbner & Co. Hong-
kong, Lane, Crawford & Co. Royal 8vo., pp. vi.
and 84. 1873.

A CHINESE DICTIONARY IN THE CANTONESE
DIALECT. By E. J. Eitel, Ph. D., Tubing. Lon-
don, Trubner & Co. Hongkong, Lane, Crawford
& Co. Crown 8vo., pp. xxxv. and 1018. 1877.

''lKii?iiiiiIiWfi^^!f;3' Seminary Librari-

es

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